It’s one of Portland’s most rapidly changing neighborhoods, with new arrivals piling in to share its charms with longtime residents. Now a new photography exhibition in St Johns will showcase members of its community new and old with a portrait exhibition of its many faces set to run for the month of August.
Celebrating St Johns opens in the former Huk Lab store, a pop-up exhibition space that doubles as a portrait studio from August 1. More than 300 portraits will be hung from the rafters, with an old-fashioned small town photo studio also set up in the space, complete with an antique large format camera and backdrop. Exhibition organizer Bobby Abrahamson plans to shoot free portraits of St Johns residents and provide them with a free print, while also adding the new shots to the collection hanging in the gallery.
The exhibition will also feature the work of three other St Johns photographers: Jake Shivery, Zeb Andrews and Faulkner Short. Portland Creative Laureate Julie Keefe will also show work that she and her students have produced in St Johns.
The exhibition also promises a space where members of the community can add their own photographs. “In this way residents will get to exhibit their own photographic celebration of community, and thus the entire neighborhood will take authorship of the exhibition,” says Abrahamson.
Celebrating St Johns runs from August 1–29 at the former Huk Lab Disc Golf store in St Johns
