Laurie Hanley Raba: My Mother’s Jewels

Laurie Hanley Raba’s new show My Mother’s Jewels opens on Wednesday, June 2oth. Please join us for an opening reception on Thursday, June 21st from 5-7pm. Refreshments will be served and FOUND will remain open for a little after-hours shopping.

The idea for Laurie’s series of photos began with a desire to photograph treasured pieces of jewelry handed down to her from her mother – a ring that she designed from stones that her father had collected while overseas and  a cameo necklace that her mother had passed down to her.

After talking with friends about the project, Laurie found that they too had jewelry from their mothers that they would like to have photographed. She says “The individual photo shoots turned into wonderful experiences filled with delightful and often long forgotten stories to share. The process of bringing out the jewelry, modeling it, and telling stories about their mother’s lives proved to be quite moving and rewarding. I felt honored to be the receiver of so many personal and touching memories. The jewels are the main focus of each photograph rather than the story tellers. The portraits are presented to suggest and remind the viewer of the value, meaning, grace, and love that can be passed on through our mothers’ jewels.”

Laurie Hanley Raba is a local photographer, living in Ithaca since 1981. She became interested in photography while enrolled in Kansas University where she had a work/study job in a photo lab and came to love the process of shooting, processing film, and making prints. It was magic to her. When she arrived in Ithaca, she joined a now “long gone” cooperative gallery called the White Apple Gallery which was located on East State Street. At that time, her work was in black and white – until she met Rick Lawrence, a local photographer, who taught her all about working in color. Since then, she has been working in color, focusing mainly on landscapes and botanical prints.

Laurie recently retired from Cornell University where, as an administrative staff member, one of her responsibilities included working as the webmaster for a department in the College of Agriculture. Many of her photographs were incorporated into the design of the website. While working at Cornell, she received a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts to exhibit a series of color landscapes. One of the prints was chosen to be part of a group show at the Johnson Museum. After retiring from Cornell, she is finding more time and energy to return to the photographic process, producing prints from her home and showing in various local venues.