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Gretje Ferguson in the News
June, 2009: Gretje Ferguson of Gretje Ferguson Photography, has been named Co VP of Programming for New England Women's Business Owners. Gretje has been a loyal member of NEWBO for six years and has volunteered her photography services to many NEWBO events. She is a Boston-based portrait photographer, specializing in business headshots for women and men and studio portraits that explore the bonds between family members. Gretje’s portraits of cancer survivors hang in major health institutions in the Greater Boston area.
Here is a member spotlight that NEWBO published about Gretje:
Member Spotlight, New England Women Business Owners
Gretje Ferguson, Gretje Ferguson Photography, www.gfergphoto.com
NEWBO member Gretje Ferguson says that owning your own business isn't easy, but that's part of the reason to keep at it.
"Everything takes much longer than you expect it will," Gretje says. "Know that getting your business ducks in a row, adjusting your vision as needed, establishing contacts, and networking with like-minded professionals will all pay off in the long run. Hopefully, after years of painstaking work and dues paying, you will see that your business has blossomed into something better than you ever dreamed."
Sage advice from a woman who knows—Gretje has been photographing the world and people who inhabit it for over 35 years. On her own for the last ten and a member of NEWBO for four and a half, Gretje says she joined the organization after hearing many professional women talk about it and then checking it out firsthand. She says that NEWBO is a great resource for artists and other creative-type entrepreneurs.
As for her business focus, Gretje says she specializes in portraits for business and family. She says, "My ideal customer for business portraits is anyone who needs a dynamic photograph for the web. My goal is to photograph everyone in NEWBO, and I have already done headshots for more than 20 members."
Gretje spends much time on projects dear to her heart, including "Confronting Cancer," which is a series of portraits of people in the midst of cancer treatment, and "Gay Dads and their Kids," which shows the warmth and commitment of alternative families. Exhibitions from these projects have been shown at art galleries around New England over the past several years.
She regularly attends photography conferences and courses to keep up with business trends and technology. She participates in online professional photography forums, and is a founding member of a group of wedding and portrait photographers called the Digital Divas, with whom she shares advice on customer relations, marketing, and photographic techniques.
For inspiration, Gretje talks of an early mentor. "I had the wonderful opportunity of studying with the extraordinary portrait photographer Arnold Newman. He encouraged me to stretch my vision instead of becoming complacent."
Gretje Ferguson Photography chosen by The Center for Women & Enterprise
Dedham, MA, April 7, 2003
Gretje Ferguson of Gretje Ferguson Photography was selected by the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) to photograph four of this year's candidates for the CWE Rising Star Award. "Gretje has the ability to bring her subjects to life. It is so important for non-profits to connect with donors and potential donors and we saw Gretje's photos as a wonderful way to accomplish that," stated Johanna Lyman, Chair of Corporate Sponsorship for the CWE Auction.
CWE's mission is to empower women to become economically self-sufficient and prosperous through entrepreneurship. "Gretje was able to capture the spirit and essence of the four women she photographed for the Rising Star Award," said Lyman, "It is truly remarkable."
"I'm excited to be involved with a project that celebrates the successes of women entrepreneurs," Ferguson exclaimed. "The Rising Stars are terrific examples of how hard work and the support of CWE's resource network can build businesses and change lives."
The Rising Star's exhibit joins two other Gretje Ferguson Photography exhibits, Gay Dads and Their Kids and Confronting Cancer: Images of Strength and Hope.
OP-ED: Photos show frame of mind can fight cancer
Boston Herald; Boston, Mass.; Apr 4, 2001; Beverly Beckham
Abstract:
It's hard to define spirit, harder still to photograph it. But Dedham photographer Gretje Ferguson has done that. If true spiritual vision is the ability to see the invisible, then what is the ability to photograph the invisible so that others, even glancing, can see?
There are two photographs of [Kathy McMullin] in the show. For women with cancer, losing their hair is a stigma that marks them as victim. McMullin, in her early 30s, defies this victimhood and poses proud and beautiful and confident, like Joan of Arc, fire all around her, but smiling because the fire, hard as it tries, is unable to touch her soul.
"Confronting Cancer: Images of Strength and Hope," by Gretje Ferguson till May 1 at Frame-It/Studio & Gallery, Route 138, Canton.
Full Text:
Copyright Boston Herald Library Apr 4, 2001
Under the black and white photographs are words written by those captured in the images. The words are the "why" behind the pictures.
"Having cancer has been the single best experience of my life because now I appreciate all things," Kathy McMullin wrote.
But the words are really just the footnotes. The photographs - more than 30 of them - are the text.
It's hard to define spirit, harder still to photograph it. But Dedham photographer Gretje Ferguson has done that. If true spiritual vision is the ability to see the invisible, then what is the ability to photograph the invisible so that others, even glancing, can see?
In this case it's called "Confronting Cancer: Images of Strength and Hope," a photographic exhibition of men and women plundered by cancer but miles from defeat.
"Three things have kept me going, my friends, music and God. My friends took me in when I had nowhere to go. And God is in the music," are the words under Edwin Gray's picture. Gray had lymphoma, Kaposi's sarcoma and skin cancer. But it's not cancer that's framed and on the wall. It's music: God at center stage, whistling.
Gretje Ferguson was asked to do this project, first by Kathy McMullin.
"I had photographed a neighbor of hers [McMullin's]. She visited the neighbor, then called me and said 'I'm going through some cancer treatment' and though she was very sick she said she felt strong." That was the beginning. Since 1999, Ferguson has been photographing people with cancer.
There are two photographs of McMullin in the show. For women with cancer, losing their hair is a stigma that marks them as victim. McMullin, in her early 30s, defies this victimhood and poses proud and beautiful and confident, like Joan of Arc, fire all around her, but smiling because the fire, hard as it tries, is unable to touch her soul.
It's the defining theme, the invincible soul. "I bought a wig and named her Ginger but we never bonded," are Maggie's words under her photo.
When a person dies, he weighs the same as when he was alive. The soul, weightless, formless and mere theory to some, is, in death as in life, illusive.
And yet it is caught here on film, not in a single photograph, but in every one. It's as if Ferguson used a magic camera with an automatic focus that centered in on something that human beings have to struggle to see.
These are the words of Ellen Morgan, a breast cancer survivor: "Ten years after the treatment ended I celebrated by getting stars tattooed on top of the ugly green radiation spots. The funny thing is the tattoos put the whole experience to rest. Now I hardly remember I had cancer."
"My internal time frame has shifted from several years to one moment. And I really enjoy that moment. It's a way I wish I had lived my entire life," are Hank Adams' words. In his picture he is playing a piano.
Ferguson filmed everyone at home - getting up, going on, eating, smiling, holding hands. Some make light of the wigs. And why not? What is a person anyway?
A person is a soul inhabiting a human body. A body wears out but a soul doesn't. The proof is the pictures. Go see for yourself.
"Confronting Cancer: Images of Strength and Hope," by Gretje Ferguson till May 1 at Frame-It/Studio & Gallery, Route 138, Canton.
Talk back to Beverly Beckham on line at bostonherald.com.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Altered images: Dedham photographer adds her personal (re)touch to old photos; Not every Kodak moment is worth keeping intact
Boston Herald; Boston, Mass.; Jul 20, 1999; DANA BISBEE
Abstract:
Don't want your ex-husband in the family portrait? Erase him and fill the space with a plant. Is the girlfriend you took to your sister's wedding now an ex? Replace her in the wedding album with your new sweetheart.
"Sometimes, people call me saying that a relation couldn't make a family reunion and they want me to put him in," said Gretje Ferguson, a Dedham photographer who has done that, all of the above and more in a booming marketplace for digitally retouched photos.
Reconstructing and deconstructing photos by computer is so easy, however, it risks tainting historical records. The British Royal Family recently altered history by digitally adding a smile to a frowning Prince William in an official family picture.
Full Text:
Copyright Boston Herald Library Jul 20, 1999
Truman Capote once said that he remembered things the way they should have been.
Photography, with the nasty habit of remembering the way things really were, wasn't much help - until now.
Don't want your ex-husband in the family portrait? Erase him and fill the space with a plant. Is the girlfriend you took to your sister's wedding now an ex? Replace her in the wedding album with your new sweetheart.
"Sometimes, people call me saying that a relation couldn't make a family reunion and they want me to put him in," said Gretje Ferguson, a Dedham photographer who has done that, all of the above and more in a booming marketplace for digitally retouched photos.
Reconstructing and deconstructing photos by computer is so easy, however, it risks tainting historical records. The British Royal Family recently altered history by digitally adding a smile to a frowning Prince William in an official family picture.
"I am amazed by what they can do," said Ruth Thomasian, founder and director of the Project Save Armenian Photo Archive, a collection of more than 20,000 pictures dating back to 1860 and chronicling the life and culture of Armenian people.
"The definition of archive is to accept original material," she said. "We only accept donations of original photos. I won't take a copy of an original, especially with the computer's ability to manipulate."
"My family is very into genealogy and I would not want this technology to be used in that kind of way," Ferguson said. "It's more of a sentimental thing. If you can't find an individual's photo, but can take him from a group, isolate him and have nice portrait - that's great."
Thomasian said that she first became aware of this power when she met a man who was the only member of his family to survive the Armenian holocaust.
He showed her a photo of his family, taken when he was a child - it included him as a child ITAL and ITAL as an adult and his father, who was actually in the United States at the time the photo was snapped in Armenia.
"It wasn't done to deceive," Thomasian said. "It was done to bring the family back together again."
Photo fakery has existed since the first shutter was released.
"It always was there," Ferguson said. "There have always been photos people wondered about. It was always possible to sandwich negatives, do darkroom manipulation. Now it's just easier and more seamless."
A writer and photographer for 20 years, Ferguson became interested in electronic retouching when she saw her old, beloved family photos deteriorating.
Today, armed with a Macintosh computer, three scanners and a dye sublimation printer for photo-quality prints from digital files, Ferguson excises the hated, materializes the newly loved and, sometimes, makes amazing discoveries.
She once enlarged and enhanced a faded photo enough to reveal a face in the mirror, which turned out to be the subject's great-aunt.
Other victories over time and memory include scanning two separate photos of a husband and wife to combine them into one print, and isolating an elderly couple from a group to make a portrait of just the two of them.
"There's something that gets people on a visceral level when they see people being erased," she said.
But, what about history? What about the person who is trying to research his family? What about future scholars who will wonder about Prince William's smile?
"You could always alter history by using scissors to remove a guy from a picture," Ferguson said. "With this technology, you cankeep the original."
Thomasian forgave the man who altered his family picture because the original had not been destroyed.
"If there's an ethical guide to this," she said, "it's to keep the original and make a note of what's been done on the print and why, so future generations can understand it."
Or, Ferguson said, just don't be the type of person anyone would want to erase.
"If we all behave ourselves," she said, "no one will want to take us out of a family photo."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
CHAMBER RUMBLINGS
Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce Newsletter, May 11, 2001, By Mark Snyder
"...Gretje Ferguson is amazing. Her photos of cancer survivors are beautiful, hopeful and inspiring. Her exhibit, "Confronting Cancer: Images of Strength and Hope," is at Frame-It Studio and Gallery in Canton. Her pictures of Kathy, a striking woman, illustrate that beauty can be achieved without hair and under adverse physical conditions. Her photos, taken during Kathy's chemotherapy treatment, are a document of hope and beauty. Ferguson may be the best photographer on the East Coast."
CONFRONTING CANCER: Photography exhibition features portraits of people facing cancer diagnosis and treatment
Framingham, September 20, 2000,
A new photography exhibition, "Confronting Cancer: Images of Strength and Hope," opens at the Framingham State College Mazmanian Art Gallery, located in the Justin T. McCarthy College Center, from October 11-31. Photographer Gretje Ferguson will present a gallery talk at the opening, on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., October 11. Light refreshments will be served. The public is invited at no charge.
Ferguson, who owns a photography studio in Dedham, has spent the last year photographing people undergoing cancer treatment. The photographs, which convey an atmosphere of hope, were made on black-and-white film.
Boston--Selected photographs from this project may also be seen at The Photographic Resource Center, 602 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, October 5-29. The exhibition opens with a wine and cheese reception from 5:30-7:30 on Thursday, October 5.