Photographer Joy Bush is WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN at City Gallery

[Jen Payne]

Joy Bush’s photographs tell a story…without telling a story. City Gallery visitors will find themselves, like the photographer, WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN at Bush’s upcoming exhibit, on view September 2 - October 2, with an Opening Reception on Friday, September 9 from 4PM - 8PM.

“I am always waiting,” say Bush. “Waiting for something to happen. Waiting to piece together what just happened. Waiting to figure out what could have happened. My photos tell a story within its frame. While you might see a photograph of a coffee cup on a table, I see the narrative of someone who waited for a friend who never showed up.”

Bush is drawn to places that feel the echo of human presence — places that reveal nothing clearly, or something out of reach. Sometimes her photographs evoke a feeling of discomfort or distance. Others are ironic or amusing. Some provoke a sense of curiosity about what could be or could have been. Others just offer a place to rest with thoughts and imagination.

“I tell a story. My story. Maybe your story,” she says. And that’s the beauty of the work in this show — the fill-in-the-blank opportunity for the viewer to create her or his own meaning. “The work exists as an alternative future… maybe an alternative past. You decide.”

Bush’s work was recently featured in Unbeatable Women at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum (2022), and HOME VIEWS at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts. (2021). Her photographs have appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, Connecticut Review, and many other publications. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibits, nationally and internationally, including shows at the International Center for Photography (NYC), Mattatuck Museum, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Copley Society (Boston, MA), Drawing Rooms (NJ), Garrison Art Center (NY), Umbrella Arts (NYC), the Westport Arts Center, and Artspace (New Haven, CT). Bush is represented in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Monetfiore Hospital (Bronx, NY), the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Yale Medical Group Art Place, and many private collections. She is a member of City Gallery, and lives and works in the Greater New Haven area.

WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN is free and open to the public and runs September 2 - October 2, with an Opening Reception on Friday, September 9 from 4PM - 8PM. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment. City Gallery follows New Haven City’s mask mandate policy. For further information please contact City Gallery, [e-mail], www.city-gallery.org.