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6 Arts Notes

Tidewater Camera Club January Speaker Meeting

December 6, 2022 by Spy Desk

Melissa Cooperman

There will be a Tidewater Camera Club January Speaker Meeting on January 2, 2023, at 7pm-9pm. The venue is Talbot County Community Center. Please visit our website for any up to the minute changes for this meeting.   https://WWW.TIDEWATERCAMERACLUB.ORG.

The speaker is Melissa Cooperman. She is a Multimedia Producer working with International NGO’s in photography, video filming and editing. Starting in the Spring she’ll be back traveling internationally, photographing and filming video documentaries in support of NGO’s development aid work. She has an undergraduate in Journalism-Photojournalism from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. She enjoys her new role as Community Arts Coordinator for the Dorchester Center for the Arts in Cambridge bringing art out into the community and discovering new art of Dorchester County to bring into the Art center through classes/workshops and exhibit opportunities.

Title and brief description of presentation: Decisive Moments

“I plan on sharing images from my work for NGOs abroad and how I approach a situation in regard to the situation and subject.”

Photo by Melissa Cooperman

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 6 Arts Notes Tagged With: Arts, local news, Photography

Jay Fleming: A Visual Storyteller for a Changing Chesapeake by Heather Hall

April 9, 2020 by Heather Hall

Exploring the photography of Jay Fleming is an evocative experience.

The eyes of a waterman invite you to sit awhile and listen to his story. Reflections of a lighthouse dance on the water, and you instinctively put out your hands for balance, as if you are in the boat, too. Above and below the waterline, Fleming brings a fresh perspective to the Chesapeake Bay.

Born and raised in Annapolis, Fleming credits his father – professional nature photographer, Kevin Fleming – with inspiring his passion from an early age. With the Nikon 90s his father gave him, the young Fleming won his first national photography competition at the age of 14.

Perhaps Fleming inherited his father’s eye for detail, but his love of the Bay and passion for the people, their culture, and environment are uniquely his own.

Fleming describes himself as a visual storyteller. He curates his images with text for exhibits and publications, noting, “You can’t have one without the other.” To be sure the stories of the Chesapeake’s watermen and seafood industry were preserved accurately, he self-published his first book, Working the Water.

He describes his second book, Island Life (due to be released in 2021), as “a visual narrative of life on Smith Island and Tangier Island and their future amidst environmental and cultural changes.”

At the March 6 preview for the Oxford Museum, the audience was appreciative of Fleming’s presentation and passion for the culture and environment he documents. Sarah Morgan Watters shared, “Jay really connects with his people. He’s like an anthropologist, but he does it in a modern way.”

Jack Turner, a friend from Annapolis, said, “Jay is a man of the people. He has access to these unseen communities because he respects them and understands the challenges they face. He’s a spokesperson for them, sharing his platform as an audience to help them tell their story.”

Turner describes his own photographic endeavors as a hobbyist, blessed to “be along for the ride” during some of Fleming’s photoshoots. He recalls: “Last summer, Jay called me one night – all excited – and asked, ‘Want to meet me at 4:30 tomorrow morning to document all the submerged grasses?’” Turner describes their field trip – complete with a drone, GoPro, underwater housing for cameras, and snorkeling gear – as if they were kids out for an adventure in their backyard. They spent two days documenting the abundance and clarity of the Severn River.

If you follow Fleming on social media, you’ll note that even “social distancing” doesn’t dampen his enthusiasm for the world around him. While unable to venture far, he treks through streams and turns over rocks to share the sights and sounds of springtime, reminding us what we too can find in our backyards. From croaking frogs to sprouting seedlings, his appreciation for the environment is infectious.

Another way Fleming engages others with the Chesapeake Bay is by leading photography workshops. His first was five years ago, and he recalls, “I hadn’t really planned it, but a waterman I know on Kent Narrows met two DC photographers and referred them to me, so I took them to Smith Island for a couple of days. It’s so close, as the crow flies, but something they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.” The following summer, he led three workshops, then four in 2017. He now offers 15-20 workshops each year. Open to photographers of all skill levels, groups are limited to six, and they spend their days on the water in a boat Fleming custom-built for this purpose.

On the job or during his free time, Fleming can usually be found in his kayak or his small craft, as he prefers to be low to the water for the best angles and reflections. But you’ll also find him walking through the marsh and making new friends wherever he goes. Turner reflected on an adventure last winter, where they came upon two muskrat trappers. Fleming’s newly made friends let them tag along and document their work.

Fleming notes, “My work as a visual storyteller would not be possible without the trust and generosity of my subjects. Subjects giving me access to document elements of their daily routines or their businesses allows me to bring that story to my work and to educate the people viewing my work. For example, with the seafood industry, by having access to the people who harvest the seafood and the process by which it is harvested, I can create a view of the supply chain that most viewers of my work would never be able to see.”

When asked about future projects, Fleming says that he’d like to continue documenting the seafood industry up and down the Atlantic Coast. For now, he hopes the spring projects resume after the COVID-19 emergency passes.

Fleming is still scheduled to have two exhibits in Talbot County this summer.

Images from Working the Water will be featured at the Oxford Museum. Stuart Parnes, President of the Oxford Museum, reached out to Fleming because his work is the perfect follow up to last summer’s WaterWays exhibit from the Smithsonian.

Images from Island Life will be featured at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Jenifer Dolde, Associate Curator of Collections, shared that Mary McCarthy, who had put together an exhibit last year as part of the Eastern Shore Sea Glass Festival, mentioned Fleming would be their keynote speaker for this year’s festival.

Although both openings have been delayed due to COVID-19, they are anticipated later this spring. CBMM is working with Fleming on a virtual exhibit and planning to host him for an artist’s talk in a few weeks.

To learn more about Jay Fleming, sign up for workshops or purchase prints, visit his website.  Photos courtesy of Jay Fleming Photography.

Heather Hall is a Leadership Coach, Spiritual Director and Storyteller through arts and crafts. Born and raised in Maryland, she spent 22 years in Alaska, working in environmental service. She recently returned to the Shore and resides in Oxford.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1A Arts Lead, Arts Portal Lead Tagged With: 0xford museum, Arts, Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Oxford, Photography, The Talbot Spy

Click. Focus on the Tidewater Camera Club

January 29, 2020 by Val Cavalheri

If you’re interested in photography, you may be hard-pressed to find one that has as much to offer as the Tidewater Camera Club (TCC). Novice or seasoned photographer? They got you covered. Prefer portraiture, landscapes, or sports photography? There are plenty of others in the group with who you can collaborate. Want to learn how to print on canvas? You’re not alone. President of the club, Mark Nelson and former president Janet Kerr sat down with us to discuss the numerous available opportunities.

Milky Way Over Joshua Tree by Carol Ward

Kerr got involved in TCC over ten years ago because of her husband’s interest in photography. A quilter, she thought she’d tag along, taking pictures of nature and colors and then figure out how to incorporate that into her quilting. The quilting stopped a decade ago, but Kerr stayed with the group, mostly, she said because members “took an interest in the novices and mentored and gave them feedback and said, let’s work together.”

Nelson joined the group three years ago when he moved to the Eastern Shore. “I had my first camera in grade school as a prize for selling magazine subscriptions. But I’ve been inconsistent. Now I have more time to do it. It’s been a ball. Everyone helps each other, sharing ideas not only in the technique of taking a photograph but also in the printing, the post-processing, ‘you can crop it this way,’ ‘try lightning up this part.’ It’s a very, very engaged group.”

Building a Home by Chris Jewett

The club, founded in 1963, was initially partnered with the Academy of the Arts in Easton (now called the Academy Art Museum). Although TCC continues to work with the Academy, the two are no longer affiliated. From the beginning, there was tremendous interest in a photography club, which to this day, is committed to sharing knowledge on the use of camera, improving member skills in producing great pictures, and promoting interest and participation for all levels and ages.
To do so, the group observes a busy schedule with a membership that runs from September through May. There are generally two meetings a month. The first Monday is a skills workshop or features a visiting speaker. Note that the speaker meetings are free and open to the public.

Car Show by Bob Miller

The third Monday of the month is a “theme guided” photo competition, which often is associated with a previous month’s speaker meeting topic or a prior club workshop. Although Kerr prefers to call these sessions critiques, photographers are awarded points by a judge or panel of judges.

“We belong to the Maryland Photography Alliance, which is a group of 12-18 camera clubs across the state of Maryland,” says Nelson. “They develop the judge certification program. So, there’s a consistent approach.” The club believes that participating in these photography assignments is a good way of learning new techniques that one might otherwise have never tried.

But that’s not all the club does. There are additional special lectures and workshops which convene as needed. There are also Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which include Landscape Photography, Wildlife Photography, and the Post-Processing Group. These groups keep open the first Wednesday of the month for field trips, typically run by a SIG member/coordinator.

“These field trips start off with a little talk about camera setting,” says Kerr. “The more experienced members tend to stay with the less experienced ones to make sure that they get some mentoring. We meet on the fourth Monday in the evening and people will provide a print from the field trip. The print will be passed around like a round table discussion of the events. What happened during the field trip, how they captured that particular picture? And then we’ll critique it. So, you get feedback, which is the whole point of this is small group interaction, camaraderie, helping each other. That’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

Kerr also organizes additional field trips that revolve around the theme from that current month’s speaker or the theme for the competition. “We’ve been to the Botanic Gardens, Pea Patch Island, and Smith Island. We’ve been to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, the Zoo, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We’ve done a Milky Way night shoot on Taylor’s Island. We’ve done an Easton walkabout.”

All of this common interest makes for an enjoyable social connection as well, say Nelson and Kerr, emphasizing that they do have a lot of fun experiences together. “We’ve had some good meals and good glasses of wine.”

In whatever way the inspiration has come about, the bottom line is that there is some exceptional talent coming from the group, and TCC’s efforts can be seen throughout the area. “Candleberry in St. Michaels has been one venue where we’ve been exhibiting pretty consistently,” says Nelson. “We’re at the Todd Performing Arts every year and the Dorchester Center for the Arts every other year. In 2020 we’re going down to Ocean City. So, we are growing both locally and regionally.”

To experience the group and meet the members, consider attending one of their free seminars.

Tidewater Photography Club meets at the Talbot County Community Center, Hog Neck Ice Skating Rink, usually in the Wye Oak Room. Membership Annual Dues: Individual–$50, Student (age 25 or under)–$15, Family–$65 Note: Dues are half price for members signing up after January 1 See their website for additional details and for upcoming speakers.

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The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Arts Portal Lead Tagged With: Academy Art Museum, Arts, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Easton, Photography, Talbot County, The Talbot Spy

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