Students Preparing For Photography Show At The Silo

By Eliza Hallabeck

NEW MILFORD — Newtown High School seniors Casey Rose-Kearns, Casey Hill and Melissa Destephano have been mentored by Brookfield photographer Laurie Klein since September, and are now preparing to have their own photos on view for the public at The Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm.

“Six Views and Views and Vistas” will be on display in the gallery space of the cooking school-store-gallery space at 44 Upland Road in New Milford from January 15 until January 30.

The three Newtown students have been joining Brookfield students Alex Sweeney, Olivia Cookfair and Kathryn Scribner at Ms Klein’s home studio in Brookfield for weekly meetings since the mentorship began. Under the guidance of Ms Klein and her co-mentor Nicole Cudzilo of Bethel, who also mentored with Ms Klein two years ago, the six high school seniors have been photographing places, people and objects while learning as they go.

The group was huddled around a coffee table on Tuesday, December 14, with Casey Rose-Kearns’s photos spread out in front of her.

“The conversations that go on here — I sometimes didn’t have these kinds of conversations in grad school,” said Ms Klein.

Along with the Tuesday night meetings, the group has also been meeting to photograph different landscapes. The burgeoning photographers ventured to Fairfield Hills, a cemetery in Bethel to shoot “ghost images,” and to Ms Klein’s studio on Candlewood Lake to create images.

Casey Hill has been focusing her lens on people dressed up in nice attire surrounded by railroad tracks and other environments that may not be expected.

Melissa Destephano’s keen eye for contrast has been narrowing in on portraits, and she has been playing with the light and dark values in her shots.

Casey Rose-Kearns has been concentrating her eye on masks, and said on December 14, the black distant expressions all looked up at her from her photographs spread out before her.

“Every week you come up with something different,” Ms Klein said to Casey.

The students take turns exhibiting their work for their fellow photographers and the experienced eyes of Ms Klein and Ms Cudzilo. Each receives constructive criticisms and encouragement from around the table.

“We’re like a Tuesday night family,” Casey Hill said.

Like Casey Rose-Kearns was told to do on Tuesday, each of the six girls will be working on dwindling her favorites down to a select few for this month’s show. By the following meetings, the students were told to bring their favorites to lay next to each other as samples before the exhibit.

Peg Ragaini from Newtown High School’s career center oversees the mentorship program, and said Ms Klein’s mentoring program would be a good model for other local businesses and artists to follow.

Ms Klein added the environment offers a safe place for the students to express ideas and learn.

“It would be wonderful if other artists or creative professionals would do this,” said Ms Klein, who offers her mentorship program yearly for students interested in photography, “because it is so beneficial.”

According to a press release by the gallery, prior to the collection’s opening on January 15, the students will begin a week long study, learning the gallery installation process with Silo Gallery Director Valerie Culbertson.

An opening reception for the “Six Views and Views and Vistas” exhibit is scheduled for Saturday January 15, from 3 to 5 pm. The event is free to the public, and light appetizers provided by The Silo Cooking School and wine from Hopkins Vineyard will be offered.

Also, a gallery talk featuring the Six Views photographers and the Views and Vistas painters (who produced paintings based on views within Connecticut’s Weantinoge Land Trust) is scheduled for Sunday, January 23, from 2 to 4 pm. Call 860-355-0300 or visit HuntHillFarmTrust.org for additional information.