Yola Monakhov Stockton: Empire Pictures of the Hudson

Artist’s Statement:

The black-and-white photographs of Empire Pictures of the Hudson, made along the Hudson river and canals and waterways of New York, grew out of teaching students the rituals of darkroom practice. This project treats the river landscape as a site for metaphor, journey narrative, ecological inquiry, and exploration of figure and ground. Cast as social and contingent, the river acts as both spectacle and force, marking time, experience, and fable.

Artist’s Bio:

Northampton, MA

Yola Monakhov makes work that deals with migration, experience, social history, landscape, literature, data gathering, and the materiality of photography. Solo exhibitions include “Photography After Dante” and “Once Out of Nature” at the Sasha Wolf Gallery,“Lebende Bilder (I)” at the Gordon Art Galleries at Old Dominion University, and “Tableaux” at Smith College and Greenfield Community College. Awards include a Meredith S. Moody fellowship from Yaddo, and a Fellowship from Greve in Chianti (FI)/ Macina di San Cresci. She has worked regularly for The New Yorker, and her work has appeared in Esquire, Time, Marie Claire, Newsweek, The New York Times, and Harperʼs. She worked as an editorial photographer between 1999 and 2005 in places including the Middle East, CentralAsia, the former Soviet Union, and Iran, after completing her MA in Italian literature at Columbia University, and before returning there for her MFA. She is currently Harnish Visiting Artist at Smith College, and faculty at Columbia University’s Advanced Photography Intensive/NYC and the International Center of Photography. Her work is in the collection of the Smith College Museum of Art and numerous private collections. She was born in Moscow, Russia, and now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City with her husband and son.