Analysis

On the couch with Sigmund Freud—a photographic study of psychoanalytic offices in Buenos Aires and New England

For much of her life, American photographer Shellburne Thurber has been engaged in an ongoing photographic investigation of the relationship between constructed space and human energy. Long intrigued by the idea of lived space as an extension of the body and a site for projection, she has photographed a wide variety of subjects, beginning with the homes of family and friends who have passed, to generic back road motels, churches, abandoned and derelict homes and hospitals, as well as commissioned projects such as the renovation of the Boston Athenæum and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. She is especially interested in spaces that are both public and private.

This volume comprises a selection of images Thurber made in 1999 and 2000 of psychoanalysts’ offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the New England area of the United States.

Shellburne Thurber graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. Her work has been in numerous group and one person shows both here and abroad. Her work is in several collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Addison Gallery of American Art; the Worcester Art Museum; and the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

Shellburne Thurber has taught extensively throughout New England, most recently as visiting professor of photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and was recently awarded a fellowship from the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site. She is based in Boston.