20 August

Portrait Show: September 18, “Faces Of Cambridge..”

by Jon Katz
Portrait Show
Portrait Show: Farm Workers, Alfreda and Reuben

My first portrait show, “Faces Of Cambridge,” will go up in the Round House Cafe in mid-September, there will be a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 18 at the Round House Cafe, 1 Washington Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. The reception is open to the public and is in honor of the portrait subjects and their friends and families, all of whom are invited to attend.

The show will be up for six to eight weeks. We have made great strides in keeping the matting and framing affordable, the photos are printed on high-quality archival paper and will be signed, of course. I’m calling the show “Faces Of Cambridge,” there are some common threads: I like all of the people in it, I know and love some of them, and all of them are hard workers who are not generally photographed outside of their families.

I guess it is my way of celebrating the community Maria and I live in now, some of these people are seen all the time, some are unseen. It was an exciting challenge for me to attempt this show, I thank Maria for encouraging me.

She is the curator, of the portrait show, she knows her stuff,  and she is tough as nails. This weekend we will lay all of the photos out on a table, and she will decide which ones survive and which ones don’t.

The photo above, our friend Alfreda and her boyfriend Rueben, both Mexican farm workers, is emblematic of the kind of portraits I wish to take. My role is to capture their spirit, and since Alfreda and Reuben love one another, their spirits come through in the portrait.

In any case, I am committed to taking portraits now, Kelly Nolan of the Bog, whose portrait will be hanging in the show, helped spark my interest in taking portraits, something I have wanted to do for years. It’s about time I did it.

I know most of the people reading this live far beyond traveling range for Cambridge, but I will share the show with you, as always. If you live around her, come on over. If you don’t, come along anway.

We all celebrate community and the good and true spirits of human beings. That is what I am trying to do here, in these photos.I think we got a nice mix of people into the show.

It helps when you take photos of people you love and respect.

I appreciate Scott and Lisa Carrino giving me a chance to do my first portrait show in their magical community cafe. I think some refreshments will be served. The photos will all be on sale, hopefully for as little as $125, that is very important to me.

I’ve been to way too many photo art shows where the price of photos starts at $400. Not for me.

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