Take It From Here

Filter Photo is pleased to present Take It From Here, a group exhibition curated by Zora J Murff and Rana Young.

Take It From Here features artworks by ten emerging photographers who use the camera as a multifaceted site of imagination, play, and self-exploration. Considering photography’s sordid relationship with the politics of representation, the selected artists collectively highlight new freedoms and visual possibilities of self-expression alive within the medium.

For this project, curators Zora J Murff and Rana Young collaborated with Travis Shaffer, Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri, and founder of the publishing project theretherenow. Founded in 2016, his publishing project uses risograph printing to produce collaborative, experimental, peripheral, and contemporary publications. The publication and exhibition are a study on multiple collaborations between curators, designers, and artists. Using the risograph’s unique processes, the curators borrowed from the color spaces present in each artists’ works to create a new four ink palate.

The Take It From Here exhibition catalogue was designed by Travis Shaffer and published by theretherenow. The book was the Juror’s Special Mention at 2021 Paris Photo, Aperture Photobook Awards.

Featured Artists

Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.

Widline Cadet

Jasmine Clarke

Paul Guilmoth

Kathryn Harrison

Elizabeth Hibbard

Tommy Kha

Alec Kaus

Nadiya Nacorda

Lindley Warren Mickunas

About the Curators

Zora J Murff is an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Arkansas. He received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and holds a BS in Psychology from Iowa State University. Zora’s work addresses questions related to the social aspects of making and consuming imagery. His work has been exhibited nationally, internationally, and published in Aperture Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic.

Rana Young is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas. Rana holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln where she was an Othmer Fellow and a BFA in Studio Art from Portland State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, as well as published online by PDN, Hyperallergic, VICE, Huffington Post, British Journal of Photography, and The New York Times, among others. In collaboration with Kris Graves Projects, she released her first monograph, The Rug’s Topography, in January 2019.

On View: August 6 – September 11, 2021

Location: Filter Space | 1821 W Hubbard St, Suite 207

This exhibition was partially sponsored by The Illinois Arts Council Agency.