Virtual Gallery
I have been involved with photography for many years. As I was growing up, I used a Kodak brownie and an argus camera. During high school, I was introduced to the printed image appearing magically in the darkroom tray.
I worked for close to two years in a darkroom, where I mainly processed black and white film and printed photos. I continued to study photography as a student at Holyoke Community College and University of Massachusetts.
I earned an MFA at Mass College of Art in Boston. While there, I photographed the urban landscapes of Boston and Northampton. I began to work with a 4” X 5” format camera. I was amazed by the sharpness and details of this camera , as I explored the homes and interiors of my family and friends. I exhibited my work in the galleries of Boston, Northampton, and New England, in juried , group shows, and a one woman exhibit.
Eventually, I changed over to the digital camera. I participated in monthly seminars and weekly classes at the Robert Floyd Gallery in Southampton, MA. My photos were exhibited at the gallery as part of group and juried shows and the House of Art, in Monson, MA. My interest in birds began while on a trip to Newfoundland with the gallery.
At this time, my focus has been primarily on birds, travel, and other wildlife. I have photographed in Florida, Alaska, Peru, The Galapagos Islands, and Bosque del Apache, a National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. I have made photos in the Northampton and Springfield area.
Our world is ever in motion. Fortunes are made, battles fought, life grows, empires rise and fall. The very earth itself which feeds and sustains us has done so for a relatively short portion of it's history. Humankind is but a baited breath when sized up alongside the reign of what shares our planet with us. Nature's tenure started far before us, and yet in our blink of an eye as the dominant species we have done our best to mortally wound her.
Today we stand at a crossroads between growing awareness of environmentalism and the rising interests of those who would overuse our resources for personal gain. Too often we forget that our children are not the only ones who will bear the burden of this exploitation. Many species great and small currently pay the price in habitat lost and dwindling numbers, victims of the march of progress. I feel it to be my calling to highlight these threatened ways of life.
My name is Nicholas Perilli, and I am an amateur conservation photographer. A chronicler of species, the natural world, and the ways humanity learns to coexist with them. I strive to capture not only the actions of a subject but the emotions and tone of it as well. When I'm not behind the shutter I can be found raising birds and tending a small farm in Wilbraham.
In the 70's I discovered 35mm cameras. My dad helped me build a basic darkroom, minus a sink, in my old spooky cellar. I had to carry a jug of water from the kitchen to the cellar each time I developed photos!
Photography became a lifelong hobby as evidenced by my bookcases filled with photo albums and slides. From those early pictures of my sister, my dog, my son and now my five grandchildren.
I loved taking pictures of friends and family and then giving them enlargements. With everyone taking their own photos , mostly with cell phones, I know longer do that, but I enjoy looking through my albums remembering all the wonderful people I know and the places I've been.
Biographical Information
A lifelong photographer, Annie’s professional training was in environment education, earning a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts in 1973, followed by many years of public school teaching and coordinating educational programs for Massachusetts Audubon Society. Photography has played a major role throughout her life and career. Her photography has been displayed in galleries and museums all over the country, received awards, and has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, calendars, and other publications, including two editions of a top-selling, award-winning Sierra Club Book entitled: Mother Earth – Through the Eyes of Women Photographer and Writers, as well as its accompanying postcard book. She has also taught photography since 1979, including a stint at UMass Amherst from 1994-2005, and again through an online course from 2010 to the present.
Personal Narrative:
“Creating art through photography has been a lifetime affair. Two vital catalysts promoted an unexpected evolution in my work flow.
"First, in 2007, I converted from film to digital which represented a monumental change offering freedom to chart new territory with my work. Several years later while living in Vermont, I started a photo study group we call f/7, with 6 creative colleagues. Inspiration from my f/7 colleagues launched a departure from creating straight line photography, my traditional, classically-oriented photography, which I view as a fairly straight line from camera to paper.
My departure from straight line photography follows a meandering, undefined path toward an unknown destination beyond reality. This journey is possible through the magic of computer editing as I digitally “paint” on my own photographs, a practice I would never have predicted of myself. I enjoy injecting whimsy and abstraction into my straight line photography. I find it’s similar to going from the discipline of classical music to an explosion of jazz.
In all my work, my lenses serve as my brushes on canvas that allow me to create images that visually express the light I see. My emotions about the natural world reveal themselves: its colors, shapes, textures, lines, and forms. My background in science and education influence my visual expressions as I endeavor to promote a connection between myself and the observer.”
This collection represents both avenues of my photography: straight line and beyond reality. I wonder if you can detect which is which…
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.
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
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.
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"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.
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.
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.
May, 2020
