fel⋅low⋅ship /feloʊʃip/ noun c. 1200, from Old English feolaga "partner, one who shares with another”

Head to Brookfield Residential YMCA at Seton and Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge throughout the fest to catch Sean Dennie’s photography series RETROSPECT.

“These photos are about fellowship; strong connection, meaningful surrender, joy, trust, and honesty. I’ve always seen photos as a way to diarize my encounters, and I feel lucky my adventures have taken me into the realm of other creatives.”

RETROSPECT is 25 portraits of artists and performers captured with short time frames during long days of the Festival of Animated Objects, over a 20-year span. Out of a collection of 100’s of portraits, I feel most connected to these. That’s important because in this case there was only an audience of one, up close, personal.

“My goal is always to make everyone iconic. To take a photo that practically lasts forever; a photo that transcends and persists because of its truth and honesty. I want the viewer to feel they were actually there; they were having the same conversation that I had. I want the viewer to be intrigued. A successful photo provokes the feeling, “Who is that person, and why am I compelled to look at them?””

There’s a certain amount of truth shared when it’s just you and another in a room, having an honest dialogue. At its best, when a photograph is being conjured, the subject is giving, and the photographer is taking, and on consumption, it’s the photographer that is giving and the subject that’s taking. A perfect world is when the viewer gets to see the union of those two intimacies.