Artist's statement:

"When I was a teenager, my dad gave me a camera--a 1950 Zeiss Ikoflex Twin Lens Reflex. I spent many hours in the darkroom, developing and printing images. I did not think of myself as an artist at that time; I enjoyed the process of measuring the light and developing and printing images. Over the last few years, I have worked my way back to film photography; I feel a visceral connection with the medium. I like to compose my artwork in the camera, seeing the final image at the moment of capture. My work in Black and White film allows me to focus on composition, texture, emotion, light and shadow without the distraction of color. It is at once raw and polished, visceral and cerebral. I choose Color film carefully; different types of film bring out different values in the final image and I use color to enhance the image beyond the composition."

from Newton Open Studios

Newton Open Studios produces community arts events that bring together the artists and residents of Newton. It is a non-profit, funded by artists registration fees and donations from generous individuals and businesses, and in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council as administered by the Newton Cultural Council. Newton Open Studios is an affiliate of Newton Community Pride. Special thanks to Ellen Fisher!

www.newtonopenstudios.org

by Amy Oppenheimer

Artist's Statement:
I have had a camera around since I was 10, starting with a black square Brownie and eventually getting to a “real” camera 20 years later when I bought my first SLR. I took a few courses and did some darkroom work and hid behind the camera at family gatherings for 20 more years until the first of the horrid birthdays approached. At that point, I decided it was time to find out if I had any creativity in me. Music would have been the logical outlet, but I can not carry a tune and there are few instruments that can be played with one and a half hands. That left photography and I’ve never regretted it.

I found, much to my astonishment, that I had been given the gift of seeing things in ways that others did not. The flip side of that is that as non-verbal sort of person, there is no “thought” that goes into what I am doing. I do not shoot with a goal in mind or a message for the viewer or a previsualized idea of what I hope to end up with. That way be madness (and brain freeze). Once I am looking through the viewfinder, I work by recognition. “This will work, this probably won’t.” I take all the shots anyway and sometimes there is that lovely “aha” moment when I see an image on the computer screen (or on the light box, in the days of slides) that literally sings. I view those images, with delight, as a gift from the universe which have somehow funneled into this world through me.

Now the challenge has become seeing in ways that do not come naturally to me. The title of this exhibit pretty much sums up my native shooting habits. I’ve never met a detail I didn’t like or a wide angle view that I knew what to do with. That is slowly changing as I force myself to remove the long lens and use something with a wider field of view. There are a few of those shots here. So, the learning continues, for as long as I can haul my gear around.

Amy Oppenheimer

by Fran Gardino

A photo exhibit of 20 digital images printed on canvas.

Artist’s Statement:
Some call me a painterly photographer, partly due to the influence of my BFA in Painting from Mass Art. If this is true then I am also, at least partly, a “en plein aire” photographer searching for open and natural light.

As a child, my father would take me for short drives to the beach in Revere and Mystic Lakes where we would draw trees and ocean waves crashing to the shore. Today, I shoot photos to capture photographic moments of impact in many of the same and similar places. My panoramas printed on large canvasses place the viewer in these printed scenes with multiple focal points, which in turn result in multiple momentous impacts. Although I shoot many non-panaramas as well, oftentimes while photographing landscapes, I am no longer satisfied with the single shot. “The gasp comes from the girth,” as it were.

All of my panoramas are multiple-shot sequences which are stitched together using Photoshop Merge.
The images reflect the process of me panning and tilting my camera to capture the scene, much like a cinematographer would capture a movie scene. They are then printed with pigment inks on archival inkjet photo canvas.

www.frangardino.com

The current exhibit are images by Coleman Rogers.