Some 200 photography lovers filled-to-the-brim the Carriage Barn Art Center in New Canaan’s Waveny Park last Saturday afternoon for the 44th Annual Juried Photography Show reception. On the walls were the 100 chosen photographs of 700 submitted by professional, amateur, and student photographers ranging from Connecticut in the main, to New York, to Florida.
“As an arts curator I’m grateful every day for the curiosity and creativity of artists who help all of us see more and differently,” said Marina Chao, who juried the show. Chao is curator of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY. She called it “no easy feat” to select those 100 on display. She had selected photographs “that reflect the range of styles, genres, and content in the entries…for their beauty, innovation, inquisitiveness, peculiarity, whimsy, and tenderness.”
Best in Show was Norwalk photographer Butch Quick’s striking black and white photo of “Anthony @ Spring Street,” with honorable mentions going to Laurie Peek’s “For Ron,” Chris Bunney’s “20 Feet”, and Marcy Juran’s “Jenny and Shirley.”
Photographer Bob Capazzo was seen exercising his prowess for capturing individual portraits in the crowd, including world traveling photographers Mike and Sally
Harris. Capazzo had managed to include the Harrises in his iconic photo on display of 3D moviegoers in the 1950’s copied from a cover of Life Magazine that has Mike and Sally in the front row!
The Harris photos included four taken in India, Ireland, Columbia, and New York City. Sally Harris, who describes herself as a “cultural photographer,” captured a Columbian individual “Relaxing at the Window.” Mike Harris’s “Indian Fruit Vendor” was taken an early morning in New Delhi with the vendor laying out his produce. Sally Harris also had an intriguing capture of children peering out a window. “They are Irish travelers,” Mike Harris told, “known as a minority group in Ireland and there are 300,000 of them.”
Passing by was luminist painter Peter Arguimbau with his wife Kim, there to view the exhibit. Also arriving
was Dianne Niklaus from the Greenwich Historical Society speaking with photographer Jean-Marc Bara. He described his photograph of a street scene in New York’s Chinatown along with his modus operandi.
“So, what attracted me to that scene was all the stores were closed for lunch,” said Bara, and he’d seen a bicycle and three chairs “neatly arranged.” “And so, photographers have ways of photographing called compose and wait,” he told. “So, I compose the frame in a way that I like, and I wait for the right character to cross the scene. And this Asian woman was just the perfect model for my photograph. So, I took her picture.”
These photographers are active participants of photography clubs shared Bara, like others across the region. Bara had learned of the clubs at an art exhibit at the Bendheim Gallery in Greenwich. He then joined the Stamford Photography Club where the Harrises also belong. “The club meets in Stamford twice a month,” he said. “We have competitions on the first Wednesday of the month and then we have a club activity or a presentation on the third Wednesday of the month.” Then there’s the Ground Glass Club. “It’s a little bit different because there are no competitions.” Count Mike and Sally Harris as members.
In such a crowd there were many Greenwich photographers on display but not encountered: Jay Wilson, a professional photographer and Melissa McCann, a portrait photographer. Also, representing New Canaan were nine photographers: Barbara O’Shea, Areil Ling, Tyler Rhind, Margaret Roscoe, Michael Telesco, Leigh Leibel, Constance Keller, Dutch Doscher, and Mariola Camacho.
For those who missed the Photography Show Reception they have until March 8 to see those wondrous 100 photographs at the Carriage Barn Art Center in Waveny Park. For more information, visit www.carriagebarn.org.
