A photography exhibition, “Common Ground,” is now showing at the Somerville Museum through the start of December. Curated by Ivan Abarca-Torres, community organizer and Somerville resident, the exhibition features 15 local photographers documenting the city’s natural, urban and social landscapes. A handful of works are displayed from each artist showcasing scenes of Somerville spanning from the 1980s to present.
Somerville has historically drawn a diverse community of creatives. Tynan Byrne’s contribution to exhibition, a selection of photographs titled “How strange others’ hands on the body that you love,” offers onlookers a glimpse into the tight-knit social circle he and his partner have built for themselves in Somerville.
Byrne’s works depict intimate scenes inside their Somerville apartment where every nook and cranny has been purposed to nurture and cultivate their friendships with those “who color the tapestry of [their] social family.” It is these friends who attend Byrne’s movie nights, who stay over to enjoy a classic New England sunset and who provided care and support for them both when Byrne’s partner was hospitalized for two months.
The selection of photographs is an homage to the strong bonds they have formed and the loving community they have found in Somerville.
Other contributing artists, like Amber Tourlente, highlight the interplay between the personal and political. Her multimedia prints are collages of re-used house catalogs and images of houses being “flipped,” or bought and sold for quick profit, in her neighborhood, representing the displacement of communities as a result of rising housing costs in towns like Somerville and South Boston, where she grew up.
Tourlente is a lifelong student of feminist, queer, BIPOC mentors, whose work stems from a desire to understand the displacement of working communities and how she as an artist can support the community she works within.
Greer Muldowney’s photographs, from his book “Monetary Violence,” also study the urban landscape of Somerville. His voyeuristic pictures of the outside of an ivy-covered home, and another of a fence with a construction company’s sign hanging from it, reveal the struggle between the resident working population and developers. His photographs illustrate how the physical environment is changing as longtime residents try to survive the rising cost of living and fight to preserve the Somerville they know.
Yorgos Efthymiadis’s portraits reflect what it means to be seen beyond one’s activism. The subjects of his portraits are Somerville residents, who work in the food, hotel and service industry, and are members of Boston-based union Unite Here Local 26. The portraits have been taken in the subjects’ homes, in casual dress rather than professional uniform, pictured with their loved ones.
Henry Cataldo and Mary Kocol’s snapshots of leaves on cars and snow on rooftops capture Somerville’s quintessential coziness, a byproduct of its stacked, and closely positioned multi-family homes, historical monuments and narrow streets.
Mary Kocol said of her subject, “I’ve always been fond of the look of triple deckers, the kitschy eclectic style of Somerville in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the close proximity of houses and buildings looking like collages – everything on top of each other.”
The inclusion of Kocol’s and Cataldo’s pieces, contrasted against the artists whose work concentrates on gentrification and human nature, raises the question, how might Somerville’s charm change as locals are pushed out by developers?
This exhibition is a small but powerful examination of a community formed by residents of many different backgrounds who are tied together by a deep love for their neighborhood, and a cautionary reflection on what will become of it as economic trends influence its social and urban landscape.
Sept. 17 to Dec. 5: “Common Ground: Photography, Place, and Community” (Somerville Museum, 1 Westwood Rd., Somerville)