The Valley Photo Center

Virtual Gallery

April, 2021
Photos by Richard "Casey" Danek

Richard "Casey" Danek - I live in Western Mass and am a recent transplant from the Spencer-Worcester area where I spent most of my formulative and productive days. I was a software engineer in high tech (Digital, Compaq, HP) for most of my working life but always made room for my fascination with photography. My first camera was a Rollieflex TLR and a Contax IIa rangefinder. I moved to DSLR's starting with a Honeywell Spotmatic, then a Nikon F. I stayed with Nikon for many years. When I came to Western Mass, I migrated to micro four-thirds cameras and lenses. My style of photography has leaned more towards street photography, landscapes, nature a small bit, closeups. I did a short stint as a professional photographer with an in-home studio (in Spencer) and shot weddings for a few years.

I love hearing about the experiences of other photographers in terms of their individual photographs or their life's work and anything in between. I like discussing the technical aspects of photography as much as the human aspects.

In the past 20 years, I have become more and more involved in video work. My wife, Lee, and I have produced over 200 videos about baking or cooking and have even helped produce a series of gardening shows. My experiences with photography and lighting made the transition to video quite easy.

I'm also a musician to a lesser extent. I have a number of songs I've written, but photography and videography are what keep me going and music supplements those quite nicely.

Minimalism Spirit is my collection of images in this VPC show. It was based on a challenge from my brother, Art, who suggested we go through our work looking for minimalism. If you look this up online, you'll find that only a few of my images actually fulfill the requirements of the theme. However, I believe my images at least have a spirit of minimalism because I believe there are simple things going on in the images. Besides, I had to come up with something to respond to my brother's challenge.

Casey
     March, 2021
Clayton Sibley
Clayton Sibley is a retired Springfield Police Department Sergeant that has been doing photography for many years. He earned the prestigious Master of Photography from the Professional Photographers of America and is a member of many local photography associations. He likes nature and wildlife photography. Most of his work was shot on 35mm chrome film, but was an early adapter to digital photography and usually drives around with at least a small digital camera in his car. While some of the photographs in this collection were made in national parks and out of state, many of them were made in the area around where he lives in Monson. Clayton has been a supporter of the Valley Photo Center for many years and has served as a judge in a number of our open submission shows.
                                                           February, 2021

Paul Hetzel is an amateur photographer living in Springfield, Massachusetts. These images are from a photography expedition he took to Eastern Greenland in 2018. The entire trip was spent in the Scoresby Sund, the longest fjord in the world. Photographic opportunities were land based, from small Zodiac boats and from the main ship itself. Additional images can be found on Paul’s web site 03photography.com. Paul is reachable at photo03@comcast.net

January, 2021
More Images by Steve Delroy 
December, 2020
Steve Delroy in a Queens, New York amateur photographer. He likes to travel and in pre pandemic days was a globe trotting photographer that has literally flown around the world. Last year he made some holiday photographs closer to home in New York City including some he made on the way home from a concert when there were no people in front of the store windows.  
                                                         November, 2020

Alan Goldsmith is a former professional photographer who specialized in editorial assignments for large corporations, national and regional magazines, and academia over a 40-year period. Here in New England, his clients included: Champion International, Connecticut Magazine, Digital Equipment Corporation, Emerson College, MIT, New England Monthly, Polaroid, and WFSB-TV3. 

Coincidentally, the three major companies listed above went out of business not long after they stopped hiring Alan :)

From 1995-2002, Mr. Goldsmith was Manager of Photographic Services at Rutgers University in New Jersey. There, he won major national awards for four consecutive years including honors as Photographer of the Year (2000) from both the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the University Photographers’ Association of America.

Mr. Goldsmith’s first book, If Roses Were the Only Flower, is a part reverent, part humorous take on diversity published this summer. He is currently working on a second, larger collection of his photography that he hopes will be in print by the end of the year.

* * *

"As a photographer, I am drawn to the play of light, strong graphics, whimsy, and ambiguity. Since 2015, an additional focus has been on the layering of images in composite photography. The polar opposite of the pre-visualization technique pioneered by Ansel Adams, it produces a rich complexity, unusual color palettes, and unexpected motifs — none of which I could have imagined at the start. That is what I find so exciting."

The images shown in this gallery represent work dating back to February when the pandemic was just on the verge of completely disrupting American lives.

October, 2020

Barbara Krawczyk is an advanced photography hobbyist who lives in Westfield, MA.  Her work has been featured in numerous VPC Open shows, local galleries and publications.  She holds the PPSA and EPSA designations from the Photographic Society of America.  Barb is president of the Westfield Camera Club and is judge coordinator and exhibition standards manager for the Springfield (MA) Photographic Society.

She traveled to Colombia, South America last January and was able to “capture” many unique birds, some of which are displayed here.  

September, 2020
Jeff Green is a fine art photographer based on Long Island, New York.  His images are captured in a variety of locations throughout the US, Europe and the Caribbean.  He handles the complete workflow of each image, from capture to print.  You can find his photography at www.jdgfineart.com

In this show each row is a set of related images that convey a sense of energy, light and color for a different subject – ranging from flora, to the ocean, to trees, to abstractions created in his home studio, and finally to more “traditional” landscapes. 

Jeff was scheduled to have an exhibit in the gallery in September, but because the gallery is still closed until we get to Phase 4 he is being featured in our virtual gallery. We'll reschedule his show when the gallery opens so you can see his beautiful prints.

August, 2020
The August show features the work of Diane Savioli-Chase. Diane is the Valley Photo Center volunteer coordinator and is on the board of directors. 
                                                              July, 2020
The July show features some images by members of the International Association of Panoramic Photographers,  For more information about them and their conference that will be held next fall in Rochester, NY click here.
June, 2020
Because we can't open the gallery during the virus stay-at-home order we are offering  virtual gallery shows. For June, 2020 the show is entitled "The Tree" by D. John McCarthy. There is a big Maple tree in my yard and as I walk to the stairs that lead to my studio I often stop and make a photograph of it. This is a collection of those photographs.

May, 2020

For our May, 2020 virtual gallery show we featured the work of Cologne, Germany photographer Uwe Peißert. Uwe (pronounced Oooh-Va) is a retired tax judge from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and an avid photographer. He has traveled all over the world over the years to make photographs. One of his favorite trips has been to photograph wildlife on safari in Africa. He also likes to photograph models in his home studio in Cologne.  This month's show is a tiny sampling of some of thousands of photographs he has made.