The Keepers
In the series “The Keepers” I am photographing people who are keeping beehives in suburban environments. Once limited to more rural areas, the practice of beekeeping participates in our fantasies about a suburban utopia, where we attempt to achieve both a pastoral and domestic landscape. Beekeeping speaks to our desire to “hold” nature in the face of an increasingly disconnected culture. I see these people as facilitators, and I think about how the small action of placing a hive in a backyard has broad implications about our desire for an interconnectedness with nature. There is a kind of magic in beekeeping; it is a practice that requires patience and faith. I am making pictures that suggest ceremony, ritual, and mystery of survival.
About the Artist
Christine Collins is a photographer, living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. Collins received a BA in English Literature from Skidmore College, and a MFA in photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Recent exhibits include Fellows’ Biennial, St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA; Forces at Work, University of Texas, Austin, TX; Flash Forward Festival, Boston, MA; The Easiest Season, Rayko Gallery, CA; Mentor: 40 Years/40 Photographers, Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME; Exposure 2013, The Photographic Resource Center, MA; and The Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Town and Country Magazine, Esquire Magazine, and Adbusters Magazine. She was recently a Critical Mass Finalist, nominated for the Prix Pictet, and selected as one of the Review Santa Fe100. Her work is represented by Jen Bekman Gallery, NY, and she is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Lesley University College of Art & Design in Cambridge, MA.
