FRAMINGHAM – Discover the varied ways memory and photography are used as a means of expression in three new exhibitions on view at the Danforth at Framingham State University.

Memories of family, home, and the land are explored in Rachel Loischild’s Quarantine Islands, William Betcher’s Memento Mori, and the group exhibition Memory is a Verb, featuring work from a collective of ten photographers. Each artist brings their distinctive take on the photographic medium to explore our deep and complicated relationship with the past. 

“This spring’s exhibitions invite visitors to slow down and reflect on how photography helps us make sense of memory, place, and personal history,” says Danforth Director and Curator Jessica Roscio. “Through deeply personal and thought-provoking work—from individual explorations of family and landscape to a dynamic group exhibition—we hope community members will join us at the Danforth to explore these stories, connect with the artists, and experience the many ways the past continues to shape our present.”

All of the exhibitions will be on view through May 24, 2026.

A special reception with the Danforth staff and the exhibiting artists is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 7th, from 6 to 8 p.m., and will feature light refreshments and a cash bar. The reception is open to the public and you can register for the event here.

The Danforth Art Museum and School is located at 14 Vernon Street on the Framingham Centre Common. To learn more and plan your visit, go to danforth.framingham.edu.

More about the exhibitions:

William Betcher: Memento Mori
William Betcher's body of work meditates on the role of the photograph as a keeper of memory and a physical representation of the uncanny.
William Betcher’s work has long focused on the passage of time and the places and spaces where we meditate on life. His recent work examines mortality, ghosts, and the uncanny through an exploration of Civil War-era portraiture and the ephemeral nature of early photographic processes. Betcher merges 19th century thoughts regarding death and mourning with contemporary ideas of image and memory in haunting portraits that blur the boundary between life and death.
As photographic objects, Betcher’s memento mori are constantly evolving.  He views his work as a modern version of spirit photography, blurring the boundary between life and death, for “my fascination has been with artifacts, which are imbued with time and, in a subtle way, with ghosts. The transparencies emerged for me from this sensibility. And, since the as-found damaged toys inherently carry the memory of children playing at war. . . one might say these artifacts are accompanied by implicit ghosts.”

Rachel Loischild: Quarantine Islands
Rachel Loischild’s Quarantine Islands meet at the intersection of contemporary photography, landscape, immigration, and public health policy. 
Loischild’s large format photographs draw us into expanses of largely undeveloped landscapes while offering fleeting glimpses of the wider world beyond the frame. For over a decade, she has been exploring how history imprints itself on the land in her global study of quarantine islands. This exhibition offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding places that represent a legacy of disease, “othering,” and contentious immigration policies. Traces of those legacies remain on the land long after the people are gone.
Loischild’s photographs, mixed media collages, and sculptural objects offer an interdisciplinary approach to understanding our relationship with the land and its legacy.  In her statement on the series, she notes how each site is “imbued with invisible histories, [and] serve as a tangible link to a past where public health measures, while crucial in controlling diseases like smallpox, disproportionately burdened those quarantined.”  This is not a foreign feeling, as we all had our own quarantine experiences during the 2020 pandemic; when panic, uncertainty, forced containment, and social isolation was not history, but reality.  Her series reminds us that the land holds memory, beautiful places have borne witness to horrifying human behavior, and history cannot be forgotten.

Memory is a Verb
Memory is a Verb brings together  ten photographers whose work mines our relationship with memory, mortality, perception, and the passage of time. 
Each photographer pulls from deeply personal experiences to create bodies of work that explore the aftermath of loss, the fluidity of memory, and the ways in which their medium becomes the mechanism to more fully understand the intricacies of our relationship with the past.
So many of our memories are connected to loss.  Loss of family members, home, land, and even loss of the ways in which we used to preserve memories—on film, slides, or in albums. Technology becomes obsolete, objects are thrown away, time passes and no one remains to recognize a face in a photograph. What happens then?  Who becomes the keeper of your memory, and what story would they tell?