Ansel Adams—Environmentalist and Photographer
Lecture by Lance Hidy
Thursday, 28 September, 2017 — 7:00-8:30 PM
Photographer Ansel Adams (1902–1984), began his long career at age 12 in Yosemite National Park with a Kodak cardboard box Brownie Camera. A nervous, sickly misfit who dropped out of school in the eighth grade, Adams found his life’s calling, and his salvation, in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada. He devoted the rest of his days to sharing the transformative power of wilderness through his art, and through his leadership in the Sierra Club. Hidy was chosen by Adams to collaborate on the last book of his career, Yosemite and the Range of Light (1979). Hidy continued to be the main designer of Adams books after his death in 1984.
Informed by his first-hand experience with Adams and his circle, Hidy brings a personal perspective to the Ansel Adams story. Ansel visited Yosemite Valley during 67 consecutive years; in his lifetime he shot over 40,000 photographs; he produced several dozen books that have sold over a million copies—including advanced technical manuals for photographers; he taught many workshops; he cofounded the first museum department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art; and, for nearly 40 years he was a leader in the Sierra Club. The lecture is enlivened by quotes from Adams’ autobiography, and by dozens of his finest photographs.
Lance Hidy
Lance Hidy studied art and design at Yale University. He was co-founder and art director of David R. Godine, Publisher before starting his own design firm, specializing in the design of posters and photography books. Ansel Adams and Arnold Newman are among the photographers he worked with. Hidy was a typographic consultant to Adobe Systems, for whom he designed the typeface Penumbra, a family of sixteen fonts. He was the art director of Harvard Business Review, has designed three U. S. postage stamps, and specializes in corporate identity and logo design. In addition to running his design, illustration, and photography studio, Hidy’s writing on design history has been widely published. For 18 years he served as a professor of photography and design at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he continues to work part-time as an accessibility specialist.
Lecture followed by Q&A
Date: Thursday, 28 September, 2017
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
Prices: Adults ($10), Students ($5) Plus $2 processing charge.
panAFRICAproject
Lecture by Lou Jones
Wednesday, 6 December 2017 — 7:00-8:30 PM
Namibia – © Lou Jones
For master photographer Lou Jones, photographing Africa has been the challenge of a lifetime. Frustrated by consistently negative media coverage of Africa—an unrealistic and obsolete litany of poverty, pestilence, and conflict— Jones decided to use the universal language of photography to dispel these harmful African stereotypes, and to tell the real story of Africa today. Its 55 countries are home to one-and-a-quarter billion people. They go to work, raise and educate their children, preserve traditional rituals, and make innovative strides in business, industry, the arts, medicine, and sports. For Jones and his camera, the continent is a visual feast.
Systematically visiting each country, one at a time, Jones and his studio team investigate the local cultures. Guided by civic leaders, teachers, and historians, they learn what is going on, and what is important and unique there—both on the large scale of the country, and on the more intimate level of individual people and their families.
With his artist’s eye, and camera craft, Lou Jones has found many ways to give back to the Africans who generously welcomed him and his crew into their communities. His photographs have been made available as a resource for education, research, business, promotion, and other creative purposes. He is developing curriculums for schools, lecturing, publishing articles, and exhibiting the African images in galleries and museums. Jones has encouraged many applications and media outlets, which is appropriate for such an ambitious project—cutting through the clichés and stereotypes, and letting contemporary Africans show us what their lives really look like.
Giving Back
Lecture by Len Rubenstein
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2018
New Work – Pro Bono – © Len Rubenstein
The problem with any shooter like myself that is constantly working, is we forget to get off the train at multiple stops, instead it’s been a race from the start to the last stop. A trip to Mexico City to spend a couple of days working on a project for the Broad institute, I had the privilege to photograph Señor Carlos Slim, at that time the richest man in the world. It was a career changing experience. Here I was with a man worth upwards of 87 billion dollars, but soon discovered that his real worth was his wisdom. We talked a bit and he shared with me some words for my children. We discussed the difference between writing a check at tax time and the virtue of giving of yourself, your time. I returned to Boston and embarked on a new direction of choosing a different non-profit organization each year to do a pro bono portrait series. I was stepping back into the studio and exploring a new dramatic photographic direction that not only challenged me photographically, but also socially. The first year I did a series of profile images for Special Olympics, that was displayed as life size images during their gala at the ICA and outside media. The next year I worked with the Friendship House. They provide services to enhance the emotional behavioral and social well-being of children. I next embarked on a campaign for Spare Change, the Cambridge newspaper for the homeless. My current project is working for ROCA, an organization using a four-year intervention model for the highest risk young people. I will tell anyone that will listen these have been some of the most rewarding shoots of my career, and I feel the work shows it. I’m humbled by the response from the people that have allowed me into their lives and to them I say thank you.
Len Rubenstein
It has been a great ride. It’s going stronger than ever.
I get to live in other people’s worlds, be it for five minutes, a day or a week. Some are newborns, some are cadavers, some in amazing homes, some are homeless, the richest man in the world money-wise, and the richest people family-wise. It doesn’t matter, they all have a story to tell, and I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to document it.
I’m as passionate today as when I started. I live in a small Irish sea town twenty miles south of Boston called Scituate. The locals call me O’Rubenstein.
My job, “a great dinnertime conversation”.
I have many of you to thank. “Thank You”
Clients include: American Express, Aetna , Bank One, Bank of Tokyo, Bausch & Lomb, Biogen, Blackstone Group, Campbell Soup Company, Charles River Labs, Deutsche Bank, Disney, Fidelity, Fleet, Genzyme, GTE, IBM, Liberty Mutual, Marriott, Merrill Lynch, Novell, and Reebok.
Lecture followed by Q&A
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2018
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
Prices: Adults ($10), Students ($5) Plus $2 processing charge.
Lecture followed by Q&A
Date: Wednesday, 6 December 2017
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
Prices: Adults ($10), Students ($5) Plus $2 processing charge.
Street Stories
Why the greatest photography project you will ever have is your own life.
Photography conducted for art that features chance encounters and random incidents within public places.
Lecture by George Disario
Thursday, 5 April 2018 — 7:00-8:30 PM
Chinatown – Boston, MA — © George Disario
The streets have long been the proving ground for many legendary photographers. Names such as Mary Ellen Mark, Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, Vivian Maier or Cartier-Bresson may come to mind. Today, original prints of their work are highly prized and often fetch tens of thousands of dollars each. With the spread of social media platforms, more photographers than ever are out there in the streets touching our collective consciousness.
George Disario
Join me for a deep dive into the philosophy, history and current culture of Street Photography. We will screen imagery that will transport us through seldom seen windows into the past and present. I’ll share my work as well as some personal street stories from growing up in East Boston as insight into the mind of a street photographer.
This will not be a dry history lesson or an f-stop driven, technical conversation. It will be a visual celebration, a converging perspective aimed at placing a spot light on this photo culture.
In the end, you will see how close you are to photography that really matters and how the most amazing things are hidden right behind fear.
I hope you’ll come with me for a fun, insider’s view to celebrate this beautiful fine art photography form.
Lecture followed by Q&A
Date: Thursday, 5 April 2018
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
Prices: Adults ($10), Students ($5) Plus $2 processing charge
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ll tuffatore, 1951 – © Nino Migliori
For over 40 years, Jim Fitts has been a college professor, art exhibition curator, photography collector, blogger, and portfolio reviewer. All that while, he was pursuing a very successful career in graphic design and advertising.
His self-professed collecting addiction helped him put together a uniquely personal collection of 20th century photography. Jim will tell tales of his adventures in the art world as well as answer questions about building an art collection, developing a personal portfolio, and getting your work published.
Jim will also share with the audience a small number of pieces from his personal collection.
Jim Fitts
Jim has been a fine arts photography teacher, lecturer, curator, and photographer for over 30 years. He is an avid collector with a focus on 20th century and contemporary American photographs.
Jim was a professor at Mount Ida College. Previously, Jim was a teacher at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University. He has also held the position of Executive Director of the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University.
Jim launched photoweenie.com, a website that offers photobook reviews as well as presenting new work by emerging and established photographers. It is considered one of the premier fine arts photography websites, and has had over 1,000,000 hits in the past year.
Jim is one half of Fitts&Wolinsky, a partnership with master photographer Cary Wolinsky, providing photography portfolio reviews and business consulting.
Jim has curated several photography exhibitions for the PRC/MIT Gallery. He has served as a reviewer for the Photolucida portfolio reviews and the FotoFest portfolio reviews. He has also served as a portfolio reviewer for the New England Portfolio Reviews and the Savannah College of Art and Design reviews. He has curated the SSAC Photography Now exhibition as well as serving twice as a juror for their member exhibition. In 2011, he co-curated Instant Connections, an exhibition of photographs by photographers who use Polaroid technology in the creation of their work and in 2012 he curated Grunts: The GI Experience at the Panopticon Gallery in Boston. In the fall of 2013, he co-curated What I Did On My Summer Vacation also at the Panopticon Gallery in Boston. In 2017, he co-curated Boston Celebrity at the Panopticon Gallery and panAFRICAproject at the Mount Ida College School of Design Gallery.
His mixed media work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Jim Fitts has had an award-winning career in advertising, design and corporate identity. He held the position of Executive Creative Director at Avenue, Inc. in Chicago and Creative Director at HHCC in Boston and in Europe. Jim was Creative Director for Monster.com and a partner at ClarkeGowardFitts.
Lecture followed by Q&A
Date: Thursday, 24 May 2018
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
Prices: Adults ($10), Students ($5) Plus $2 processing charge.
There will be a raffle at the end of the lecture for Collectingphotography – by GERRY BADGER.
People have been collecting photographs since the first shots were taken, but its growth in the last decade has been phenomenal. Yet photographs are complex objects involving a minefield of specialist and technical issues. Collectingphotography assembles all the knowledge and information the first-timer needs. It analyzes every aspect of the art, shows how to build a collection, discusses the photographic print, and offers advice on displaying and caring for the images. Written by photography historian and collector Gerry Badger, this highly readable guide is supplemented with advice from some of the world’s leading collectors, curators, and dealers.
1 ticket for $1
5 tickets for $4
10 tickets for $8
