at the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston, NY
Opening reception July 12, 2014 from 4-6pm. All are welcome.
The show will run through September 30, 2014.
Virginia Apuzzo Hall in the Center’s lovely old building at the corner of Wall and John Streets is a large room that allows me to show a broad range of work. Here’s what I’ll be showing: animals from Columbia and Dutchess County farms are seen up close in a way that we rarely get to view them–alpacas, goats, cows, and sheep with personality!
Also showing uplifting images of flowers, water, and landscapes. Every exhibit that I do gives me the chance to see how these images work in different spaces, in different configurations. I love this design process; figuring out how to piece together the puzzle to make it look like the work was created just for this space. Aside from the joy of making the images, I really get into combining them to make something more powerful than one image alone, and seeing how they change the feel of a space.
I was encouraged by Marcuse Pfeifer, the former NYC gallerist and manager of the Center’s exhibitions, to show photos that I don’t usually exhibit. One of these sets is of dogs and features the kind of spontaneous, unposed movement that I love to capture.
The other set is a group of images of gay people, which I want to show simply because I have them, they are rarely seen, and in general we hardly every get to see images of lesbians and gays. I don’t think I’ve ever seeing a group like this exhibited–some are of gay weddings and couples I’ve photographed in the last few years; some are friends, some are well known lesbian performers.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s knowing I was gay and never seeing images of gay people. I remember the first time I ever saw an out person in print. It was author Merle Miller on the cover of the New York Times Magazine in 1971, with his piece “What It Means To Be A Homosexual.” That photo and his article affected me so deeply because at that time, we never saw anything like that in the mainstream press. We were starved for information about each other. Thank goodness for change, for having an LGBTQ Center, and for the lovely folks who opened up to me and my camera.
Apuzzo Hall is named for Ginny Apuzzo, the Founding President of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center, and one of our nation’s great gay and lesbian rights activists. The Center is at 300 Wall Street and is open 9:30-5:00 Monday-Friday and 10-2 most Saturdays. The show will run through September 30, 2014.
