After the Fire
Exhibition information: https://www.union.edu/news/stories/201907/Sculpture-photos-displayed-in-Visual-Arts-galleries
Exhibiting with Abby Golodik, sculptor, https://www.abbygolodik.com
On January 30, 2014, I left home for a normal workday. Within a couple of hours, I began receiving phone calls from my neighbors. Steve, a Town of Schodack Police Officer was the first to call, he left a message of, “Frank, please call me, it’s important”. Vinny, on the other side of me left a message of, “Frank call me back, there is a lot of smoke coming from your house”. Mark called and said, “Hey man, I don’t know what’s happening with your house. There’s a lot of smoke and fire trucks. Your dog is out in the yard”. He didn’t say the dog was dead. We ended up losing almost everything we owned. Our dog and cat were locked in the house and perished due to smoke inhalation. It was a faulty breaker that started the electrical fire. We are very fortunate that it didn’t happen at three in the morning. After a year of high stress and very many tears, my wife and three daughters have settled down in a new home, with new pets. My marriage survived, but my children still wake up crying in the night.
These images are not meant to be sensational. This is my life, and it was a horrible thing to go through. Photography is a tool I use to relate to the world; how I come to terms with things horrible, beautiful, or wonderful. When tragedy struck my life my first response was to try to make art out of it. Some of these images are autobiographical, some are documentarian, and some are abstract expressionism. They all speak to the sense of optimism within the loss and tragedy my family has experienced.
The first image is the series, which is intentionally placed out of order to highlight it, was recently awarded 1st Place in the 38th Annual Photo Regional, juried by Dan Burkholder. These images are archival inkjet prints, printed 12x18 and matted to 17x22.
Frank Rapant
Castleton, NY
March 2016
Read MoreExhibiting with Abby Golodik, sculptor, https://www.abbygolodik.com
On January 30, 2014, I left home for a normal workday. Within a couple of hours, I began receiving phone calls from my neighbors. Steve, a Town of Schodack Police Officer was the first to call, he left a message of, “Frank, please call me, it’s important”. Vinny, on the other side of me left a message of, “Frank call me back, there is a lot of smoke coming from your house”. Mark called and said, “Hey man, I don’t know what’s happening with your house. There’s a lot of smoke and fire trucks. Your dog is out in the yard”. He didn’t say the dog was dead. We ended up losing almost everything we owned. Our dog and cat were locked in the house and perished due to smoke inhalation. It was a faulty breaker that started the electrical fire. We are very fortunate that it didn’t happen at three in the morning. After a year of high stress and very many tears, my wife and three daughters have settled down in a new home, with new pets. My marriage survived, but my children still wake up crying in the night.
These images are not meant to be sensational. This is my life, and it was a horrible thing to go through. Photography is a tool I use to relate to the world; how I come to terms with things horrible, beautiful, or wonderful. When tragedy struck my life my first response was to try to make art out of it. Some of these images are autobiographical, some are documentarian, and some are abstract expressionism. They all speak to the sense of optimism within the loss and tragedy my family has experienced.
The first image is the series, which is intentionally placed out of order to highlight it, was recently awarded 1st Place in the 38th Annual Photo Regional, juried by Dan Burkholder. These images are archival inkjet prints, printed 12x18 and matted to 17x22.
Frank Rapant
Castleton, NY
March 2016
