St. James Photo Exhibit Puts Alternative Process Photography on Display

The work of 27 photographers throughout the country will be featured in an alternative process photography exhibit at the Smithtown Township Arts Council in Saint James. Accomplished photographer and Saint James resident Joy Goldkind selected the photography for the 32nd Annual Juried Photo Exhibition, which will be on display from Jan. 8 to Feb. 4.

“It’s a very cool show because everybody is putting in a lot of work,” Goldkind said. “It’s not just pieces that are coming out of the printer or where they put the work in before on the computer and they spent hours and hours working on it – these people are literally mixing chemicals and producing work that way.”

Attendees can expect to see photos created in numerous processes, from cyanotype to silver gel on linen, palladium on vellum, liquid photo emulsion and ink, ziatype on salted paper and many more.

“The theme of the show is contemporary work in a historical manner, in a historical process. We made a real big point of saying no digital prints in this show,” Goldkind said.

Goldkind started shooting at the age of 50 and has now been involved
with photography for nearly 20 years. Her work has been featured throughout the country and Europe and is featured in numerous galleries and magazines including Wave Gallery in Italy, Eyemazing Photography Magazine, Zoom Magazine, Photo Life Magazine and more.

Although she is an accomplished photographer, she limited her involvement in the exhibit to selecting the work and included only one of her photos.
“There’s one piece of work in mine in the show, it’s a Bromoil piece, a process from the 1920s,” Goldkind said. “It was shot digitally but it’s back to the traditional on paper and it’s hand printed with lithograph ink.”

Executive Director of the Smithtown Township Arts Council Allison Cruz said when it came time to organize the exhibit Goldkind was the right person to select the work to be featured.

“She has always – for the past 10 years – helped me find high quality jurors for my photography exhibits which has enabled us to present unique opportunities not always available on Long Island,” Cruz said. “I thought it was time to have her as a juror. Not only to expose people to her expertise, but also to pay tribute to a Long Island photographer's success in the field.”

Of the 27 photographers, two are from Long Island – Patti Kern of Kings Park and William Grabowski of Huntington Station. First place winner of the exhibit is Caitlin Parker of Westminster, CO.Goldkind said contemporary photographers creating work through historical and alternative processes are new, burgeoning trends.

“We’re finding that a lot of artists and people that do contemporary artwork are looking towards the history of photography to get away
from the digital print and the digital aspect and the commercial aspect of photography,” Goldkind said.

The exhibit's opening reception, complete  feature  live music provided by Long Island singer-songwriter Spencer, a chance to meet the artists and more, will take place Saturday, Jan. 15 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., however, the gallery will be open from noon to 4 p.m.

“When you see the amount of work involved in presenting an historical process print you will be amazed to think that in the past photographers had to work very hard to present their work,” Cruz said.