Upcoming Photo Exhibit Celebrates Your Greatest Fears

If avoidance is not the best way to deal with fears, a photo gallery in metro Boston has an opposite approach: a show that celebrates fear.

Starting October 2, the Green Street Photo Collective in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, will host a month-long exhibit called “Phobias.”

The salon-style exhibition will transform the gallery “into a physical catalog of fear, covering the wall with photographs of the things people are afraid and/or how those fears make them feel,” says the photo collective.

Green Street Photo Collective

“We’ve gotten a wide range of submissions, from literal fears and phobias to images that are more abstract or emotional interpretations of fear,” says award-winning photojournalist Erin Clark of The Boston Globe.

Clark and Boston-based independent photographer Sophie Park are co-founders of Green Street Photo Collective, a nonprofit documentary photo space they run with six other Boston-based photographers.

Irony Alert

A collaborator for the upcoming show is nature photographer Billy Hickey, who spent most of his life afraid of spiders and photos of their faces. Phobias are intense, irrational fears.

Nature photographer Billy Hickey, based in Watertown, Massachusetts | Photo by Kay Hurley

In late 2020, Hickey’s project “How We Were” won first place in Lensculture’s Black and White Photography Awards, documenting everyday life during the pandemic.

“Phobias” show checklist

• Did I miss the deadline? Submissions are open through September 21 (up to five photos for consideration).
• Fear of entry fees? Entry is free, with a suggested donation.
• What about AI? Photographs made with generative artificial intelligence will not be considered.
• Fear of perfection? Photos do not need to be perfect, says Clark.
• Who handles printing? Green Street Photo Collective will handle printing of images selected and return prints after the show.

“The idea,” says Clark, “is to create a broad visual catalog of what people are afraid of and how fear manifests differently for different people,” such as fear of heights, loneliness, illness, death… or spiders.

For three consecutive years, Clark was named Photographer of the Year by the Pictures of the Year International competition sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at Missouri School of Journalism.