Deborah Orloff, a professor and associate chair of the Department of Art at The University of Toledo, is advancing an ongoing photography series with a solo exhibition at Brevard College in North Carolina.
The exhibition, “Elusive Memory and Lost Histories,” incorporates several new pieces that Orloff created in the past year with financial support from a 2022 Arts Commission of Greater Toledo Merit Award.
Deborah Orloff, a professor and associate chair of the Department of Art at The University of Toledo, is advancing an ongoing photography series with a solo exhibition at Brevard College in North Carolina.
It’s on display in Brevard College’s Spiers Gallery through Friday, Feb. 23.
Orloff, who teaches all levels of photography at UToledo’s Center for Visual Arts, began the series in 2013. Inspired by poorly preserved family photos she discovered following her father’s death in 2007, it explores the complicated relationship between photography and memory.
The earliest iteration of the project, “Elusive Memory,” features approximately 35 large-scale recreations of abandoned, neglected or forgotten photos, on which marred surfaces and physical deterioration come into sharp focus. It was selected for inclusion in the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Midwest Photographers Project in 2017 and received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council in 2019.
The next iteration of the project, called “Elusive Memory: Lost Histories,” is an extension of the original series that Orloff began in 2021. It features small-scale still-life photography of personal items belonging to Orloff’s deceased Jewish relatives, such as identification cards, passport photos and religious objects.
“The images allude to lost cultures, stories and identities — especially in situations of forced migration (as was the case for my ancestors who fled Ukraine during Russian pogroms),” Orloff writes in an artist statement for “Elusive Memory: Lost Histories.”
“My photographs represent the universal experience of struggling to recall details of the past — often with little clarity; they evoke lost family histories and speak to the ephemeral nature of memory.”
Deborah Orloff’s ongoing series was inspired by poorly preserved family photos she discovered following her father’s death in 2007.
UToledo has recognized Orloff’s work on “Elusive Memory and Elusive Memory: Lost Histories” in honoring her with Awards for Creative and Scholarly Activity in 2022 and 2021.
The Brevard College exhibition is comprised of 12 pieces from “Elusive Memory” and 22 pieces from “Elusive Memory: Lost Histories,” more than half of which were created in 2023.
“In addition to being honored by the recognition, I’m excited to have my work in a gallery large enough to show pieces from both iterations of the project – essentially in conversation with each other — and I love the curator’s vision for the installation,” Orloff said.
“This is also the first time I’ve been able to show all 22 images from ‘Elusive Memory: Lost Histories’ in a single show, and many of them will be seen for the first time at Brevard.”
Orloff also will offer a public lecture and student critiques at Brevard College before “Elusive Memory and Lost Histories” closes on Feb. 23.
An artist reception is set for Friday, Feb. 9.
