"Alice in the City" Photography Exhibit at Roseland Library

"Alice in the City," a collection of 21 Alice in Wonderland-themed photographs by Joanna Madloch, will be on display in the library community room through June. Her photography has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. A writer and scholar with a doctorate in Humanities, Madloch studied photography at ICP and the Penumbra Foundation.

"Like a mythological trickster, I balance between different worlds, uncover visual association, and construct semantic links," she says.

Madloch became intrigued by photography growing up in the Eastern Bloc during the 1970s, in a time and place where photography was prohibited.

"Among numerous restrictions imposed by the autocratic government on its citizens, the one I remember most vividly is an image depicting a crossed-out camera. There were 'No Photography' signs on railroad crossings, on the gate to the factory where my parents worked, even near my school. I always wondered what kind of power the little machine possessed that it made the seemingly omnipotent authorities so afraid," she recalls in her artist's statement.

"I got my answers when I first looked through the viewfinder of a little Smena (appropriately, the name of this Soviet-manufactured camera means ‘the change’). The world observed through the tiny frame appeared different -- more real and magical at the same time. Straight away, I got hooked. While for a long time it was impossible for me to own a camera, I practiced mental photography by framing the world with my hands."

Price list available at circulation desk. To see more work by Joanna Madloch visit joannamadloch.com