Join us for an Artist Talk with Washington DC based artist Lely Constantinople. She will share about her current show up at 9s Studios and her photography and art making process including various printing methods. Light refreshments will be provided. This event is free and open to the public. Go to events at 9sstudios.com
Artist Statement:
I am captivated by the documentary and conceptual aspects of
photography and explore the medium’s unique ability to contain
both factual and manipulated information at once. I work primarily
with analog alternative processes (film, gravure, solar plates, cyanotype, anthotype) and feel strongly about the need for tactile, physical object making. By spending time and labor on individual pieces - sometimes it takes days, weeks, or even months to
fully realize one image - a more in-depth exploration of subject and material occurs. I am drawn to a range of subject matter but most often photograph in urban and rural environments in flux, using re-photography over many years to note subtle shifts and changes in a variety of communities.
Mapping out neighborhoods and walking them over and over is an
integral part of my process. It forces a slower pace and a
collaboration of sorts with the street itself and affords the ability to
notice and record the most detailed aspects of how communities
tear things down and build them back again. A visual archive of sorts is being built but my main focus is on the spontaneity of the street and how communities reveal themselves on any given day.
Lely's exhibition from the last 5 years includes:
2024 DC Art Now, D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Washington, D.C.
2023 Collectors Night, Washington Project for the Arts Benefit Auction, Washington, D.C.
2022-2010 Transformer Art Auction, curated by Victoria Reis, Washington, D.C.
2021 Our City, Ourselves: Women Photograph Washington, curated by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities
2018 Start with This, curated by Jayme McLellan, Civilian Art Projects, Washington, D.C.(solo)
2020 High Frequency, Washington Project for the Arts Benefit Auction
And Grants & Awards:
D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship Grant (2025, 2024, 2020, among other years)
D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Sister Cities Grant (Paris, France) (2019, 2015)
D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank purchases (2017, 2009)
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Excellence in Teaching (every year from 2015-present)
Lely will be leading a workshop earlier the same day so look for that event as well.
