A Photographer’s Standing Date With Autumn

By Jan Howard

Autumn is a local photographer’s favorite time of year, so much so that every October he takes two weeks off to capture the colors of fall with his camera.

Art Anderson’s collection of 23 color and black and white prints will be on display in the community room of the C.H. Booth Library on Main Street during October. This is his second show at the library. He has also exhibited his photographs at the Bridgewater and Southbury libraries and DiGrazia’s Winery in Brookfield, and has entered competitions.

His photographic collection of “Autumn Images” captures the season’s magical display of colorful leaves, trees, and water, focusing on the vibrant hues, such as “Signs of September” and “Portrait of A Leaf.” The display also includes some black and white photographs with a winter theme, including “Christmas – Ram’s Pasture,” and “Abandoned Cabin,” which has the appearance of a charcoal or pen and ink drawing. The cabin, he said, was built especially for a movie set.

“One of my goals is to make my black and white photography look like a sketch or a drawing,” Mr Anderson said. He photographs primarily still life and landscapes.

“I want to get more into it,” he said. “I’m getting back into black and white, but will also continue doing color.”

Mr Anderson, a resident of Newtown for 28 years, grew up in Westchester and previously lived in Ridgefield and Danbury. Mr Anderson studied commercial and portrait photography at the Germain School of Photography in New York City. Now an engineer, he had a commercial photography business for several years that included wedding and portrait work. During the mid-1970s to 1980s, he contributed photography to The Newtown Bee.

His interest in landscape and still life photography began about 20 years ago, and, he said recently, “I’m coming back into it stronger.”

Mr Anderson said he inherited his interest in photography from his father, also an engineer, who was an illustrator and photographer. “He helped it along,” he said.

Mr Anderson has sold some of his photographs at craft shows and has also contributed photographs of unrestored automobiles for calendars published by Heming’s Motor News of Bennington, Vt.

“I started on nature photography,” he said. “The majority of my work is in color, but the subject and lighting could decide what the medium should be. In autumn it has to be color. In winter, it’s black and white. I’m open minded about what to use. I might take a subject and do it in both color and black and white.”

Mr Anderson is president of the Candlewood Camera Club in Danbury and its representative to the New England Camera Club Council. While he said he does not have time for many activities, he once enjoyed attending stock car races and is a member of a local singles group.

Mr Anderson tries to shoot photographs weekly or biweekly. “I shoot around the house and do still life at home. I plan to do more as I can.”

“Scenics, still life, and landscapes I capture as I see them,” he said. “I like to put some of my emotion into the material. Still life is all done in my head before I photograph it. I may do several versions, sketching them out to capture what I want to project. I may put them aside for several months before I actually shoot them.

“I’m happy with the things I’ve done,” Mr Anderson said. He admires the black and white photography of Walker Evans and Ansel Adams and the color work of Pete Turner and Elliot Porter.

Mr Anderson stressed the importance of timing in photography. It’s all about being in a place at the right time, such as a photograph on exhibit of the flagpole and the Newtown Meeting House entitled “Our Flag…Our Newtown” and another, “Summer Clouds.”

He said he has taken shots in the morning that picture car headlights as they drive up Church Hill Road toward the flagpole.

“I try to convey scale,” he said.

During the autumn, if the colors are not as vibrant, Mr Anderson said he might use special filters to enhance the colors.

“I keep everything in sharp focus and get in low and dramatic,” he said. “I do a lot of scenics. The main thing I’m looking for is what’s different and dramatic, such as getting a dramatic sky or a different angle. I always use a tripod. I haven’t hand held a camera in a long time.”

Reprints of the photographs in the library exhibit are available. For information, contact Mr Anderson at 426-3413.