Category Archives: Photographers’ Lecture Series

Photographers’ Lecture Series Presents Scott Barrow

Tanglewood Nation.  A view of the lawn at Tanglewood just before a concert. Scott Barrow
Tanglewood Nation. A view of the lawn at Tanglewood just before a concert. Scott Barrow

The first visitor in Williston Northampton School’s annual Photographer Lecture Series can trace his love of photography all the way back through his family tree—some 150 years.

Scott Barrow notes that his family began taking fun photos in the 1860s, when such a playful attitude toward the medium was still relatively rare. In his biography, Mr. Barrow adds that he spent childhood nights in the basement darkroom with his father and that those sessions sparked his own love of photography.

Scott Barrow
Scott Barrow

A decision to spend his last $150 on a Canon SLR and five rolls of Kodachrome in 1972 seems to have paid off handsomely: Mr. Barrow’s hundreds of assignments have been for clients across the range of advertising, travel, editorial, and corporate spheres. These include American Express, Charles Schwab, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Tylenol, The Wall Street Journal, British Airways, Northwestern University, Williams College, Disney, National Geographic, NY Times Travel Publications, Scientific American, and U.S. News and World Report.

Mr. Barrow has been awarded the Communication Arts Photography Award of Excellence, Graphis Photography Annual Award, New York Art Director’s Club Award of Excellence, and PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris, among other accolades.

Scott Barrow
Scott Barrow

“I take beautiful photographs for a living and I enjoy it,” Mr. Barrow notes in his bio. “The bigger challenge for me as an artist is to go beyond beauty and find my connection to the scene, to become part of it in the moment that I release the shutter. It is only then that I can truly share what I saw and felt with you, the viewer.”

Mr. Barrow will present the first in the 2015-16 Photographer Lecture Series on November 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Photographers’ Lecture Series Explores Light, Darkness

The series features experts Eduardo Angel, Abelardo Morell, and David Wells
Courtesy of Eduardo Angel
Courtesy of Eduardo Angel

Exploring light and dark—how to capture it, how to play with it, and how to mold it with equipment both new and old—is at the core of this year’s Photographers’ Lecture Series.

Eduardo Angel, Abelardo Morell, and David Wells work with vastly different mediums—from the high paced digital world to the camera obscura, one of the oldest-known imaging devices—but bring a common interest in illumination and its sources.

The three are also dedicated educators, using a range of blogs, podcasts, and online courses to explore photography and filmography in all its forms: equipment, lighting, composition, framing, and other creative and technical skills.

“I was looking for a range of image makers,” wrote Fine and Performing Arts Teacher Ed Hing, who organizes the series. “Abelardo is well known for his work with the camera obscura, Eduardo is a technical wizard, and David is a working photojournalist. All will bring something different / unique to the students.”

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Brody Presents War Photography at Williston Series

Ben Brody Photographers Lecture Series 1Many of the images were bleak: sunburned soldiers sprawled over their cots in the crushing desert heat; deep drifts of sand with boot tracks leading to three green Port-o-johns; an Afghan solider in a doorway below an ominous mound of sandbags with a transistor radio pressed to his ear.

Then there was an American soldier standing in a lush field, exhaustion written all over his face. The temperatures had reached 120 degrees that day, and the men had been carrying 100 pounds of gear through dense, humid fields.

Photographer Ben Brody took a long look at the picture, projected onto a screen in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center, where he was presenting the last seminar in the 2014 Photographer Lecture Series.

“He was killed six weeks after I took this photo,” Mr. Brody explained of the solider whose portrait he had taken.

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Final Photographers’ Lecture Series Asks ‘Where is the Truth?’

Photographers Braden Chattman and Michael Zide are so in sync with one another that, during a recent talk at the Williston Northampton School, they finished each other’s sentences.

“The big word at Hallmark is ‘intention,’” said Mr. Zide. “As someone who absorbs photography,” Mr. Chattman chimed in, “that’s what ultimately matters.”

The Hallmark Institute of Photography teachers were at Williston on April 23 to give the final evening talk of this year’s Photographers’ Lecture Series. That afternoon, Mr. Chattman and Mr. Zide had also spent a class period speaking to Williston’s photography students about what a professional career in photography involves.

“Photography is a lot more than a career decision,” said Mr. Chattman. “It’s a lifestyle.”  He described his dream retirement: traveling the country with his wife, who is also a photographer, in a motorcycle with a tripod mounted on its sidecar. That way there would be no glare from car windows. Continue reading

Chattman and Zide at Photographers’ Lecture Series

Braden Chattman

A pair of photography instructors who approach the natural world from vastly different perspectives will visit the Williston Northampton School for the final in this year’s Photographers’ Lecture Series. The event, held in the Dodge Room in the Reed Campus Center on Tuesday, April 23, at 6:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Braden Chattman and Michael Zide, both instructors at the Hallmark Institute of Photography in Turners Falls, will speak about their work, how their approaches have changed over time, and how others can explore their own authentic voices.

While Mr. Zide looks to capture what he describes as “moments of wonder in the landscape,” Mr. Chattman combines photos he takes over time to form landscapes of his own.

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