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Carrie Hoelzer: The Sisterhood
Art and Soul Gallery
5708 W. Vliet Street, Milwaukee
414-774-4185
www.artsoul-gallery.com
Through March 30
Carrie Hoelzer is an MFA candidate in photography at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her new body of work, “The Sisterhood” is a photo-
journalistic study of elderly nuns. A series of large-scale digital prints occupies the
newly expanded gallery space of Art and Soul, near the Times Cinema. Hoelzer
also published a book of the images, where she offers a brief written introduction
to the project but does not explain where her interest in nuns initiated. It’s a
question that hovers over the work. Why? Any kind of documentary photography
presents a subtext of the photographer peering into a world that is foreign to him
or her. This unequal relationship positions the subjects as a kind of curiosity to be
viewed and examined. No matter how tender the gaze of the photographer, the
subject of study remains distanced, with his or her ‘otherness’ heightened by the
focus. The only way around this dilemma is for the photographer to be totally
conscious of this relationship and completely transparent in the motivations of the
project. Otherwise, the viewer simply becomes voyeur, without enough revealed
by the photographs to fully inform us of anything meaningful about these people’s
lives. There are some beautiful images in this show, however, especially the ones
without people, where we sense Hoelzer walking through the halls of the convent,
peering into open doors for a glimpse of a moment that speaks of the quiet
humility of a sister’s life. A flowered, cotton robe hung in the laundry room or the
white metal curtained beds or the bulletin board of people’s requests for prayers.
These images give the photographer full license to shape the material to her own
subjective liking. But once the actual person enters the photograph, the relationship
needs a different kind of navigation. Perhaps Hoelzer tried to reckon with her
“outsiderness” by shooting some of the nuns through doorways, indicating the
division between inside and outside. We certainly get the sense of Hoelzer’s
respect and interest in her subjects. But without knowing what brought this art
student to the convent, I was left with a certain discomfort.
Reviewed by Debra Brehmer
Art and Soul Gallery
5708 W. Vliet Street, Milwaukee
414-774-4185
www.artsoul-gallery.com
Through March 30
Carrie Hoelzer is an MFA candidate in photography at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her new body of work, “The Sisterhood” is a photo-
journalistic study of elderly nuns. A series of large-scale digital prints occupies the
newly expanded gallery space of Art and Soul, near the Times Cinema. Hoelzer
also published a book of the images, where she offers a brief written introduction
to the project but does not explain where her interest in nuns initiated. It’s a
question that hovers over the work. Why? Any kind of documentary photography
presents a subtext of the photographer peering into a world that is foreign to him
or her. This unequal relationship positions the subjects as a kind of curiosity to be
viewed and examined. No matter how tender the gaze of the photographer, the
subject of study remains distanced, with his or her ‘otherness’ heightened by the
focus. The only way around this dilemma is for the photographer to be totally
conscious of this relationship and completely transparent in the motivations of the
project. Otherwise, the viewer simply becomes voyeur, without enough revealed
by the photographs to fully inform us of anything meaningful about these people’s
lives. There are some beautiful images in this show, however, especially the ones
without people, where we sense Hoelzer walking through the halls of the convent,
peering into open doors for a glimpse of a moment that speaks of the quiet
humility of a sister’s life. A flowered, cotton robe hung in the laundry room or the
white metal curtained beds or the bulletin board of people’s requests for prayers.
These images give the photographer full license to shape the material to her own
subjective liking. But once the actual person enters the photograph, the relationship
needs a different kind of navigation. Perhaps Hoelzer tried to reckon with her
“outsiderness” by shooting some of the nuns through doorways, indicating the
division between inside and outside. We certainly get the sense of Hoelzer’s
respect and interest in her subjects. But without knowing what brought this art
student to the convent, I was left with a certain discomfort.
Reviewed by Debra Brehmer
| Copyright 2008 Art History Chicks LLC |
