Light Work is presenting “The Gray Line,” featuring the work of Kristine Potter, on view in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery at Light Work from through March 3. A reception and lecture with Potter will take place on Thursday, Feb. 2, from 5-7 p.m. at Light Work with a gallery talk at 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served at the reception. Also on view is “2017 Transmedia Photography Annual” exhibition, featuring photographs by seniors from the art photography program in the Department of Transmedia within the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.
Kristine Potter, “Untitled, 2009” from “The Gray Line “
“The Gray Line” is a series of portraits that Potter made at West Point Military Academy, which has trained a large number of high-ranking Army officers and eventual U.S. politicians. Raised in a military family, Potter notes that “a very particular kind of patriarchy and folklore associated with military heroism” pervaded her childhood years. In this series of photographs, made between 2005 and 2010 at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Potter attempts to disrupt the binary language that conflict seems to publicly heighten. “I’m not interested in voicing opinions of whether war is right or wrong. It exists. My voice has always focused on the human drama. These are people, and they get used in the political sphere. But in the end, they’re not symbols, they’re humans with complex feelings and lives, and I find that compelling.”
Born in Dallas, Potter earned both a B.F.A. in photography and a B.A. in art history at the University of Georgia in 2000. From 2000-2003, she lived and worked as a professional printer in Paris. In 2005, she earned her M.F.A. in photography from Yale University. Potter has exhibited work in Paris, New York City, Miami, Atlanta and Raleigh, North Carolina. Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City represents her, with a book, “Manifest,” forthcoming.
