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Artist’s Statement:
Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons is a portfolio of photographs that I took over a three-year period at fourteen summer fairs in New England, ranging in size from small 4H fairs to giant ‘expos’. Passing through the gates of the first fair, I was smitten. A complicated balance of huckster sleaze and startling innocence, of whirlpool baths, pungent livestock, and religious salvation, against a backdrop of gleeful screams, the aroma of fried dough, bells and whistles. The deep connection between people and their animals was particularly intriguing to me and enviable.
This portfolio presents a wistful visual record of this American tradition that has changed little over the past century. I chose to photograph in black and white, using basic plastic “toy” cameras, because I wanted to capture a fleeting moment, a broad stroke, not precise detail. To go beyond documentation to the then-or-now of it.
Meg Birnbaum is a graphic designer, educator, and photographer living in Somerville, MA. Her passion for photography started when she and her teenaged sister shared a darkroom in the attic of their parents’ house. She developed her love for the narrative from the weekly magazines her parents subscribed to and from their fascinating book collection.
Meg has had solo exhibitions as far away at Kobe, Japan and as close as Hudson, NY. Her work is held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, The Lishui Museum of Photography, China and the Museum of Art Pompeo Boggio, Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires.
Birnbaum has designed and art directed many magazines, most notably Cook’s Illustrated and The American Prospect. She is currently very happy to be designing catalogs for The Griffin Museum of Photography, where she also leads portfolio building classes, called the Photography Atelier.
