ZOOM ILLUSTRATED TALK: WEDNESDAY, MAY 25
10AM

$10 MEMBER/$15 NON-MEMBER

$10 MEMBER/$15 NON-MEMBER

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SOUL SEARCHING

The Power of the Photographic Portrait 

Starting with the mirror, and continuing with the camera, there were, and still are, some people around the globe who worry about their souls being stolen by either or both.  It is easy to understand, as to look at a totally realistic view of oneself can be startling.  It is possible the portrait photographer, in many cases, really is trying to go beyond the surface capture the essence of a person’s soul or personality. Many of these portraits succeed at doing just that.  We will look at some of these and talk about the stories behind them.

Marty Hassell Bio
I had a lot of fun, for 30+ years of my career, teaching the History of Photography course in the Professional Photography Program at New England School of Photography in Boston.  Among other things, I was the Academic Director for 13 years and Dean of Students for 10.  I found being in the classroom with every student in the program enabled me to get to know each one of them.  The challenge was that all those students were there to learn how to become professional photographers, not historians.  A show of hands at the first class of each term showed that at least 2/3 of the students hated studying history!  As a result, I found myself telling stories from the History of Photography that were relevant to my students’ nascent lives as professional photographers and went beyond the dry (what happened at what date) approach that they apparently had experienced in the past.  I have focused on as much primary source research as possible and taken a holistic approach to the subject matter, so these stories have grown and multiplied over the years.  I continue to be fascinated by the saga of this, now ubiquitous, mode of expression and recording of history, so I continue to want to share these ever-evolving true tales.