Part of the appeal of the Fine Arts department at Brandeis is the opportunity to work with practicing artists. Prof. Julia Hechtman (FA) is one such faculty member who specializes in photography and video. Her work has been exhibited at the LaMontagne Gallery in Boston and the Video Data Bank's collection in Chicago, in addition to international exhibitions in locations as varied as Sydney and Tel Aviv, Israel. She has been an artist-in-residence at Oxbow in Saugatuck, Mich. and the Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, as well as the Nes Artist Residency in Skagastrind, Iceland. According to an e-mail interview with Hechtman, she grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. and was a National Park Ranger for three years while living in New Mexico and Alaska. She has also lived in Chicago for eight years. Such a wide range of exposure to different geographical landscapes has given Hechtman a special appreciation for their varied beauty. She says, "Each place has its own character. Location influences me both directly and indirectly." In particular, Hechtman spent a residency in June of last year in Iceland. When asked why she chose Iceland, she responded: "It is a country known for its spectacular landscape, so it's been a place that I've wanted to visit for a while. I brought movies to help pass the time and to break up the endless daylight while there. The films I chose all feature the landscape in some way. That was a conscious decision." Accordingly, the photos from the recent exhibition "I Wish, I Wish," are titled as allusions to the films she brought. Among them are Lost in Translation, Harold and Maude, Cool Hand Luke and The Deer Hunter. Her photos feature the raw landscapes of Iceland, and although many of them are beautiful, others are alien, and even strange, containing desiccated shapes and vast, lonely expanses. What serves as a counterpart to many of these isolated images is the warm presence of people positioned in frames reminiscent of the films she brought with her. In one, titled "Lost in Translation," a prone male, splayed on his back against the mossy growth atop a cliff, stares up at the vacant sky in a pose rather similar to that of Bill Murray, lying alone in a hotel bed in Tokyo. Both could be men floating along in their lives, driven by outside currents. In another photo, titled "Harold and Maude," a man and a woman sit next to each other, lit by a background of an endless sunny day.

Although the "I Wish, I Wish" exhibit is now closed, Hechtman's work is currently featured in another Boston exhibit titled "Netherworld" at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery at 130 Newbury St. in Boston. The gallery also contains paintings by Kyong Ae Kim and work by sculptor Carl D'Alvia. Hechtman's piece at the gallery consists of a minute-long video titled "The Vanishing," which is actually comprised of a series of photos of a lone tree against a dry, spare landscape, where the brown tone of the tree is replaced pixel-by-pixel with white space. Hechtman explains, "Each frame of the video is another altered photograph. The tree in the video is slowly erased. As for the inspiration, my work considers the notion of absence and how to make it present or visceral." The gallery manages to cover a great deal of territory despite its small square footage. It is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Previously, Hechtman ran the Proof Gallery in South Boston for two years, but she now devotes her time solely to teaching and producing her own work. She says, "The balancing act can be challenging, but I prefer to have a lot to do. My teaching perpetually reminds me of those things I find most interesting and important. It definitely helps to fuel my energy." Of the possibility of running another gallery again, she confesses, "You never know, but I don't think I would run another gallery. I enjoyed it immensely, but I'm happy to focus on teaching and making art for a while.