Rocky Mountain School of Photography Gallery is excited to announce its inaugural exhibition grow. with work by Eileen Rafferty. Fusing archival imagery and traditional techniques with modern technology and contemporary visual culture, Rafferty’s work seems to exist in a time outside of time – like standing still in a moment one remembers that hasn’t quite happened.

grow., as the title might suggest, eloquently explores growth and its inevitable stages of budding, stagnation and the moments in between. Like the seasons that come and go, the moments are uncontainable and indefinable, fleeting and ephemeral. Inspired by traditional Japanese themes, Rafferty chooses simple elements of nature, trees and skies, as her subjects. The trees, appearing more as black and white line drawings than the actual photographs they are, are stripped away of their detail and reveal almost a calligraphy of form and space. The skies, naked of any contextualizing landscapes, hang as a field of colors and spaces undefined. Laced with gentle and subtle emotion, one feels an ebb and flow reflecting the movement of life – breathing in and breathing out.

Rafferty has been teaching for RMSP for 3 years. Her classes have included: Visual Design, History of Photography, Creative Photoshop, Alternative Printing and various areas in multimedia. Additionally, she is an adjunct instructor at The University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, where she currently lives. She has worked as a freelance photographer, educator and digital technician; and has printed for clients including: National Geographic, The Kennedy Center, and The White House. Rafferty received an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.