About us
Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey here! We are artists, collectors and curators. We started PROJECT B in 2000 using our extensive archive of vernacular photography as the basis for artwork, exhibitions, publications and collaborations with other artists. Our art and curatorial approach crosses traditional boundaries and is inspired by the intersections of fine art, vernacular imagery, social history, women's history, queer and popular culture with the unavoidable telling of personal stories.
Barbara Levine
Barbara Levine is an artist, vernacular photography collector and author. Barbara's books, published by Princeton Architectural Press, include People Kissing: A Century of Photographs (2019 with Paige Ramey); People Fishing: A Century of Photographs (2018); People Knitting: A Century of Photographs (2016); Finding Frida Kahlo (2009); Around The World: The Grand Tour in Photo Albums (2007); and Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album (2006). Barbara with her wife, Paige Ramey, built a vernacular photography collection over 30 years they call PhotoMania and in 2020, it was acquired by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Barbara's collection of early vernacular photograph albums was acquired by the International Center of Photography in New York in 2009. Barbara and Paige regularly organize exhibitions for Cherryhurst House in Houston, including the exhibition and self published photo book, CAMERA ERA (co-authored by Martin Venezky and named a 2014 best photobook by photo-eye). Trained as a photographer at the San Francisco Art Institute followed by a graduate degree in Museology, Ms. Levine served as deputy director of The Contemporary Jewish Museum, and as exhibitions director at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Paige Ramey
Paige Ramey came to PROJECT B with over twenty years experience running arts organizations following her career in dance and video art in NYC. Since 2014 she has been consulting and co-curating for Cherryhurst House, an artists residence and exhibition space in Houston, Texas. Paige also has an extensive background in the preservation of pre-digital and time-based media. During her 15 years as Programs Director at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), she directed a seminal program in the field of analog video preservation, working with museum conservators, archivists and the Library of Congress to establish conservation practice standards for video repositories throughout the world. She is the writer/director of Playback: Preserving Analog Video, an interactive DVD set funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her formative experience as both a performer and a videographer in New York’s alternative dance/performance heyday—working with influential artists such as Elizabeth Streb and Yvonne Rainer—has fueled her lifelong commitment to preserve and distribute unique cultural expressions of a pre-digital world.