Eastman Living Online Magazine

By Fredrick Orkin

Reprising the Photography Interest Group’s successful exhibit two years ago, a dozen photographers from the Eastman community recently exhibited 30 framed prints in the South Cove Activity Center’s lobby. The group of photographers included both hobbyists and semi-professionals. Eastmanites understandably expect beautiful landscape, nature, and wildlife photos, but the exhibit was much broader, with compelling images across many photographic genres that also included abstracts, portraiture, and street photography.

Carol Moyer Shearon, who organized the exhibit, shared iridescent, violet water lilies captured from her kayak. Bill Ryan vicariously took us to a Rhode Island garden where rows of tulips vied with any in Holland, and Mike Sandman captured a New England maple in peak fall foliage.

Fred Orkin transported viewers to Maine’s Acadia National Park where a pond reflected glorious foliage framed by blue-green reeds. Other exhibitors captured a variety of colorful floral arrangements: Faye Burgin managed to freeze a bee industriously pollinating a spring bloom; Nancy Farinella shared a live still life of Alaskan blooms against a bright wall as well as multicolored water lilies and floral lake reflections; and Paula Dorr treated us to still more water lilies.

There was also remarkable variety among the wildlife depicted, including Rick Karash’s image of a loon landing amid fall foliage, Carol Moyer Shearon’s photos of ducklings and of a loon with chicks on her back. Faye Burgin captured a solitary feather floating in the lake, and Richard Sachs, a frigate bird on a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Diverse geography characterized the landscapes: Rick Karash shared two drone-captures of our Eastman Lake, while Bill Ryan took us to Gloucester, MA’s Wigwam Point at sunset. Andrew Taylor tantalized us with images from Glacier National Park and the Moroccan desert; Faye Burgin, a boater enjoying a moody lake sunset; and Paula Dorr, Cape Town’s shore and iconic terrain.

The greatest diversity was present among the abstract images, including Bill Ryan’s blue building reflections, Mike Sandman’s travel into a tunnel, Richard Sachs’ shadow, and David Greenfield’s fountain-water patterns. Alice Glass had the portraiture category to herself, treating us to two well-crafted head shots and another using a striking “high-key” technique, in which the background and complexion were white, with only the facial features outlined.

Street photography entries were especially poignant and timely. David Greenfield captured a hyperkinetic demonstrator wrapped in an American flag at a Boston rally. Fred Orkin shared a photo of a woman boarding a Mumbai train, on which a tattered poster reminds all that such a woman could be your mother, and another of his images depicted a handful of niqab- and abaya-adorned Muslim women on a modern street in India with only their eyes visible.

The Photography Interest Group began in 2014 to foster photographic skills, interests, and related informal camaraderie in the Eastman community. The group welcomes the participation of all residents, regardless of proficiency level. Eastman Living benefits from the contributions of several of these exhibiting members whose work regularly appears the magazine.

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Fredrick Orkin, founding member of the Photography Interest Group, is a retired physician who acquired his first camera, a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, in 1950.

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