Chris Enos was born, raised and educated in California. This may account for her peculiar sense of humor and bizarre outlook on life. Acutely observant, she watched the beautiful farmlands and landscape of Southern California become covered with freeways, shopping malls and housing developments. Eventually she had an observation problem because of all the smog, and moved to the northern part of the state.
In college, she had a hard time finding something that she could do with her life that would not contribute to this materialistic madness. Then, alas, ART saved another life!
She received a BA degree in sculpture from San Francisco State and a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970. She put herself through school working as a waitress and lived the hippie life in the Haight Ashbury and Marin County. The first photographs she made were during this time and the nude was her vehicle for expressing the freedom of the time.
After her move to the east coast, her focus became more documentary, concentrating on nature and its struggle to survive the urban environment. From this time on, her work always served as a metaphor for something going on in her life as well as documenting the world around her. The most highly published were her plant life and flower series. Both looking at the edge between beauty and decay and reaching the graying stages of her life.
After many years in the urban environment, Chris moved to beautiful Plum Island, about an hour north of Boston. Not wanting to pollute the drinking water with photo chemicals, she turned once again to working with what she found in the environment and commenting on local issues. Her many walks on the beach turn up the fodder for her recent work. Possibly she has always been a frustrated junk collector. Whatever, at least she is cleaning up the beautiful beach and filling up her studio with the garbage thrown out or left behind by people that couldnąt live without the stuff.
To sum it up, Chris believes that the artist is a particularly sensitive person that observes and digests the human condition. Sometimes it is very beautiful and sometimes it makes you sick. Most of the time it is somewhere in-between.
about | education
1970 MFA in photography, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1969 BA in sculpture, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
about | grants and awards (selected)
1998 Massachusetts Cultural Council, Works on Paper
1993 Somerville Arts Council Artists Fellowship
1991 Liberal Art Faculty Summer Research Fellowship, UNH
1989 Center for the Humanities Projects and Programs Grant, UNH
Somerville Arts Council Artist Fellowship, MA1988 Liberal Art Faculty Research Support Program, UNH
Englehard Award, The Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA1987 Nynex Faculty Grant, University of New Hampshire
Silver Award, Art Directors Club of New England1986 Mass Production Grant, Massachusetts Council on the Arts & Humanities
1985 Mass Production Grant, Massachusetts Council on the Arts & Humanities
1983 Project Completion Award, The Artist Foundation, Inc., Boston, MA
1981 PhotographyFellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1981 PhotographyFellowship, The Artists Foundation, Inc., Boston, MA
1980 PhotographySurvey Project, The Artists Foundation, Inc., Boston, MA
1975 PhotographyFellowship, The Artists Foundation, Inc., Boston, MA
about | teaching experience (selected)
2004-present University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, Professor Emeritis
1986-2004 University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, Associate Professor of Photography
1985 Rhode Isiand School of Design, Providence, Rl, Visiting Lecturer (senior seminar)
1984-85 UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, Visiting Lecturer in Photography
1982-83 Smith College, Northampton, MA, Visiting Artist
1982 International Center of Photography, New York, NY, Coordinator of Advanced Studies
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Photography Instructor, Summer term1977-78 New England School of Photography, Boston, Ma, Instructor in Photography, Gallery Director, Coordinator of Lecture Series
1977 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Photography section of Humanities 15
1975 Boston University, Boston, MA, Instructor in Photography, Summer term
1974-75 Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, Assistant Professor in Photography
1974 Windham College, Putney, VT, Assistant Professor of Photography
1972-73 University of California, San Francisco, CA, Instructor in Photography
San Francisco Academy of Art, San Francisco, CA, Instructor in Photography
about | lectures (selected)
2001 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2001 Newburyport Art Association, The History of Photography, Newburyport, MA
2000 DeCordova Museum, Photography Symposium, Getting Focused, Lincoln, MA
1992 Pagosa Springs Art Center, Pagosa Springs, CO
1991 Tufts University, Medford, MA
Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, ME
South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, ME1989 University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME
Portland School of Art, Portland, ME1988 Cleveland State University
Photographic Resource Center, Boston University, Boston, MA
DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Lincoln, MA1987 University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Montserrat College of Art, Beverley, MA1985 Swain School of Design, New Bedford, MA
1984 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Atrium Gallery, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT1983 Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Society for Photographic Education, Philadelphia, PA (National Meeting)
Society for Photographic Education, Colorado Springs, CO (Regional Meeting)1982 Wright State University, Dayton, OH
DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Lincoln, MA1980 lnternational Center of Photography, New York, NY (with A.D. Coleman)
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT
Museum School, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA1979 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1978 Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Tufts University, Medford, MA
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
SUNY College at Oswego, Oswego, NY1977 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
The University of Rochester, Rochester, NY1976 Galerie Optica/Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
1975 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Smith College, Northampton, MA
about | bibliographies - books (images reproduced) (selected)
History of Photography in Boston 1955-1985, MIT Press, 2000.
Flora Photoraphica, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1991.
Legacy of Light, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 1987.
Landscape as Photograph, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1985.Photography Year 1979, Time-Lire Books, New York, NY, 1979.
SX-70 Art Lustrum, Lustrum Press, New York, NY, 1979.
IN/SIGHTS: Self-portraits by Women, David R. Godine Press, Boston, MA, 1978.Self-portrayal, Friends of Photography, Carmel, CA, 1978.
Art of the State - Massachusetts Photographers, 1975-197.
Creative Camera International Yearbook 1975, Coo Press, Ltd., England, 1975.
Octave of Prayer, Aperature, Inc., New York, NY, 1972.
Be-ing Without Clothes, Aperature, Inc., New York, NY, 1970.
about | biographical reference (selected)
Who's Who in American Art, edition, 2001.
Who's Who in the World, Millenium Edition, Marquis Publishers, 1999.
American References, The New York Art Review, 4th edition, 1989.
American References, American Artists, 1989.
The Complete Book of Photographers, Macmillan and Company, Los Angeles, CA, 1980.
World Who's Who of Women, 5th edition, Cambridge, England, 1979.
Who's Who in American Art, 14th edition, R.R. Bowker Co., Tempe, AZ, 1978-84.
Who's Who in America, 42nd edition, Chicago, IL, 1982.
Contemporary Personages, Accademica Italia delle Arte e del Lavoro, Parma, Italy, 1981.Who's Who in America, 41st edition, Chicago, IL, 1980.
about | international publications (selected)
1990 Camera International, Paris, France
1989 Contemporanea Internation Art Magazine
1988 Blumen, Exhibition Catalogue, Fotogalerie Bordenan, Germany.
about | television and video interviews
Brockton Art Museum, "Summer's World Project" Channel 7, Boston, MA, "Early Times Program"
Channel 2, Boston, MA, Artist's Housing"
Channel 2, Boston, MA, "90 Seconds With"
Channel 7, "Studio 7 Profile and Interview" Continental Cablevision, "The Artists' World"
"One Day at a Time", Video produced by Chris Enos aired on Somerville Access Television and Cambridge Cable