Artist Statement:
The Threshing Place is a series of photographs made with paper figures that my mother used to illustrate Bible stories to children. These figures would be put on felt backdrops representing Biblical landscapes as the story was told. By arranging and photographing parts of this teaching archive in new contexts, I am rediscovering these characters and finding new, revised, and relevant meanings.
Raised as a fundamentalist and evangelical Christian, where the answers came from one source and questioning that authority was strongly discouraged, I am now a wandering and wondering soul. I am using this body of work as an inquiry into what is represented and taught in the faith, what is retold and remembered, and what is investigated and revised. The title, The Threshing Place, is a reference from the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament, and the threshing place is where the wheat gets separated from the chaff. This is a symbolic reference to the process of discerning where truth remains for me.
The questioning is the journey; the questioning is the answer.
Artist Biography:
Julie Williams-Krishnan is a fine art photographer and the Director of Programs at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, and a teacher of photography. Julie’s photographic practice investigates identity and personal narrative. She has exhibited her photographs at the Griffin Museum of Photography and the Khaki Gallery in Boston, The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, the A. Smith Gallery in Texas, as well as other venues in Boston, London, and Oxford. She holds a MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster in London, UK.
In addition to being a practicing fine artist, Julie has taught photography classes, workshops, and at university level and has worked as a freelance photographer and photographer’s assistant. She has served on the committee for the Renaissance Photography Prize, an international photography competition that raises money to support younger women with breast cancer.
Based in Boston Massachusetts since 2010, Julie lived in London, UK for more than 16 years and has traveled extensively.
