A Happy Day for "Lower Broadway"

...from a photographer's notebook 

"Lower Broadway" ©2015 Steve Ember

No, not a song title, but a felicitous confluence of events for a photograph of which I’m quite fond, and which made Friday pretty special for me.

“Lower Broadway,” a black and white study from my first explorations of New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, was shot along that thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan on a June afternoon in 2013.

Min Enghauser, who has over the years brought much of my work to life, whether in the darkroom or as a master printmaker in digital fine arts media, produced a stunning 24 x 36 inch archival pigment print of this and a companion image from my Tribeca explorations.

The interval since the photos were taken was a very busy period which included my career transition to…freedom!...so, while both images have been seen on my Foto-Community pages, Min’s lovely prints were under wraps until recently, when I decided it was time to get them out there in the real world, beyond their electronic incarnations.

I learned earlier this month that “Lower Broadway” was selected for inclusion in the Maryland Federation of Art’s “MD Art @ College Park” Third Annual Fine Art Juried Exhibition, so it was time to get this big fellow ready for display. Paul Nee and his associates at Capital Framing in Fairfax did their usual lovely work for me, nicely setting off Min’s exquisite print.

At the Opening Reception Friday evening

At the exhibit’s opening reception Friday evening, I was delighted to find that the photograph had received a Juror’s Choice Award from Yumi Hogan, Maryland’s First Lady and artist as well as art professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.

The other happy bit of news attaching to this photograph was that, a couple of weeks ago, a fellow photographer had proposed “Lower Broadway” for the French Foto-Community Gallery. And a couple of hours before leaving for the reception, I received notification that the photo had been voted on by this peer group and accorded the F-C Gallery Star.

So, happy day indeed for a favorite image. And a big thank you to Taras Matla of the University of Maryland Art Gallery, who was responsible for hanging the show, for according my photograph a wall of its own, which, along with the fine lighting, made for a lovely gallery debut for a favorite NYC image of mine. And thanks also to Executive Director Joann Vaughan and Hannah Sturm of the MFA for coordinating this expansive exhibit.

The show will run through August 1. The Art Gallery is located in the Art and Sociology Building, University of Maryland at College Park. For more information, please call the Gallery at 301-405-2763 or the MFA at 410-268-4566.

©2015 Steve Ember