Meet Me in The Green Glen

Work By Maureen R. Drennan

June 29 – July 1, 2021

Open 6-9 PM with the artist present to sign books

Transmitter is proud to present a pop-up exhibition of photographs by Maureen R. Drennan in conjunction with the release of her monograph Meet Me in The Green Glen (Aint-Bad).

Drennan’s pictures walk the ever-compelling line between art and journalism. The pictures are clear and descriptive with tangible facts that one might expect in a documentary photo story. Meet Me in The Green Glen is a telling portrayal of a farmer who grew large quantities of marijuana in California. We see him in clothes that are more practical than well fitted, with the wear and tear of physical labor, and a proliferation of dogs and pick-up trucks. While working a sizable farm with endless rows of marijuana plants taller than a grown man, he also enjoys fishing, beer and worn centerfolds. And judging from smoking a cigar while relaxing in a jacuzzi bubble, also financial rewards.

As informative as Drennan’s pictures are, the work transcends into art with the lovely flourishes of old fences, misty landscapes, and a fabulous green scrim. All these function as art does, in providing the viewer with a visual experience that serves to create a sullen mood that seeps into the more journalistic pictures. But the work really subverts journalism when Drennan brings the viewer past the remote and possibly illegal enterprise and into the farmer’s home, where we find ourselves at the foot of the bed of a shirtless man as he restlessly stares off into the distance. Drennan creates a narrative that implicates her in this shared intimacy, flagrantly rejecting any presumption of journalistic objectivity. Instead, the photographer leaves the viewer with a bevy of questions about her relationship to these people that have granted her such access to create complex, visually compelling art about a fascinating subject matter.

Maureen R. Drennan is a photographer born and based in New York City. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, the Tacoma Art Museum Seattle, Washington, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Aperture, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Centotto Gallery, Transmitter Gallery, Mrs. Gallery, and the Newspace Center for Photography, amongst others. Her images have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, California Sunday Magazine, Huffington Post, Photograph Magazine, Photo District News, American Photo, UK Telegraph, Refinery 29, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She currently teaches at LaGuardia Community College in New York City.