Joe’s Photograph Exhibit January 2012

Artist of the Month for January at Cook Memorial Library


Self-portrait


This is Joe’s eye. So blue and twinkly. He took lots of pictures of eyes, all colors of irises and lashes. I imagine him with a wry smile asking for permission to do so.


Joe had many friends in New York and visited often. Washington Square in Greenwich Village was one of his favorite places. On Sundays he liked to go play chess with the old men on those stone chess tables.


There were a half dozen of these shots of games. I think they are really interesting and colorful. I like the way he got right down there at the table top angle to get this shot.


I imagine that this is a Dartmouth-Hitchcock bash, but who knows? Joe liked to party. It could be at the Waldorf-Astoria for all I know. I love the composition, especially the woman in the foreground striding toward the camera whilst chewing.


This is another from the Halloween series, probably taken in a bar. Who knows if Joe even knew this guy. I like how the photo reads at first as a crescent moon in a night sky and is only gradually revealed to be a man with a cigarette in his mouth.


There were many shots of this pile of folders. At Dartmouth –Hitchcock, as a research coordinator, Joe shuffled file folders all day. It makes me really happy that he could stop and see something visually interesting in a pile of folders.


This was taken when Joe joined his Dad and his Dad’s buddies for a winter trip to our camp on Moosehead Lake to ice fish and snow machine. Joe had a ball being with the guys and doing guy things. I remember he proudly told me he trounced them all at cribbage.


There were many of these snapshots of people. I don’t know them, but Joe must have known these two. It’s such a loving portrait. My gaze just zooms right in on those smile crinkles at the corner of their eyes.


I have no idea how Joe got so close to this duck but it is quite a shot. Any pro would have been proud of it. He must have been lying on the ground with his chin in the water to get it.


Joe attended a friend’s graduation from law school and afterwards they all went down to the river. I believe this is his friend’s sister. Joe must have been very taken with her – it was hard to pick amongst the many shots he took. A flower of young womanhood!


I particularly like this game shot because of his friend’s striped shirt (I strongly suspect that this is Steve Katz). I really wonder if Joe looked back through all his pictures after he took them. They were organized by date taken. Perhaps he did to remember good times with friends, and the beauty he saw all around him.


This was taken on our family trip in April 2010 to Terceira, an island in the Azores way out in the middle of the Atlantic. Interesting flora abounded there, and Joe took hundreds of pictures.


This is another one from the Moosehead Lake ice fishing trip. He must have crawled right under the lip of ice to get this shot of the shore where our camp is. I like how the foreground is so dark and cool blue, with the far-off land bathed in sunlight.


This is my favorite. Taken in the Azores on the terrace of our sumptuous villa, it exemplifies the enjoyment we all felt at the colors, the ocean, the morning breezes, and the excellent Azorean coffee. I love the way the geranium is perfectly reflected in the coffee cup.


Sana is Joe’s beloved goddaughter. He was so proud to be chosen for the honor and took his duties seriously, visiting her often at her home on Roosevelt Island in NYC. You can see him holding his camera over his head, reflected in her eyes.


Much to my surprise, Joe shot perhaps a hundred photos of flowers. I had no idea he had any interest in flowers whatsoever. But I did know that he had his eye out for beauty.


Joe really liked cloud formations and vapor trails and seemed to notice them often. How often do you look at the sky? I like the simplicity of this photo. It is exactly as he framed it in his camera, clean and crisp.


This must have been some Halloween party. From what I could tell, he was in NYC with a big group of pals who apparently started off at someone’s apartment and then barhopped all over the city, ending up in the wee hours on the bank of the East River. The photos were a bit blurry by then…


He’s not dead, just sleeping it off. At Moosehead camp, one of Joe’s Dad’s friends.

The bobbin on my spinning wheel

The stage at SMAC, a place Joe loved. We had a memorable evening listening to Bela Fleck to celebrate Joe’s 29th birthday.


I believe this view was on Joe’s commute from his home in Etna. He loved his country home.


Here’s another of the many of people in relationship, in a bar scene, probably known to Joe but who knows?


This was the view from the terrace on Terceira. Joe took many photos and movies of the sunsets. It was an extravaganza every night.


Joe and I had a wonderful day together, just the two of us, driving around Terceira on the coastal roads. Unbeknownst to each other we both took shots of this lone, windblown tree girted by ancient stone walls, with wild surf below. I even painted it in acrylics as a thank you to our landlady there. It pleases me that Joe and I both noticed the same bit of beauty.


The man himself. Our Joe. Next to a pretty girl. Self-portrait.

If you know who any of these people or events are, please leave a comment. Leave a comment even if you don’t, we’d love to hear from you.