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I could also title this blog, “The Life of a Tree,” “Climbing Trees”, or “A Tree over Time”. I have been a portrait photographer in the Hamptons for over twenty years. When I photograph I imagine what would be enjoyable and interesting for my clients. I like my portrait clients to be engaged in whatever it is we are doing. I feel that natural expressions come forth and enable me to photograph who that person really is. One of my favorite locations has a giant tree. It’s a magical tree with all of its nooks and crannies stretching out over the sand by the bay.

Portrait Photography, The Life of a Tree

This giant tree has held countless children and families in its limbs.

Portrait Photography, The Life of a Tree

I remember how much fun I had as a child climbing trees. The world looks so different through the limbs of a tree.

Portrait Photography, The Life of a Tree

Some families have chosen to make their holiday cards from the portraits on the tree.

Portrait Photography, The Life of a Tree

I started using this location with its giant limbed tree over twenty years ago. It has weathered many storms, lost some branches and many leaves. This is what it looks like now, in July 2013. I wonder what portraits I can make from its aging limbs.

Portrait Photography, The Life of a Tree

Time will tell!

 
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In the early 1980’s while I was completing my Masters in Photography at Brooklyn College, I had also signed on with a stock agency named “Stock Boston”. The company flew me to Boston for my final interview. They wanted black and white photographs for books, advertisers, illustrators, newspapers, magazines on any and every subject you could dream of. So I invented stories and photographed anyone and everywhere I could think of.

I spent time in central Pennsylvania in a small town named Mt. Carmel. My mother had grown up there and I was anxious to see where she came from. In its heyday, in the 1940’s the population was almost 20,000. [ Today the population is less than 6,000 people.]The main industry was coal mining and manufactories of shirts, stockings, silk and planning mills. My grandfather was a coal miner. He was the first one to enter the mine with a canary. If it lived that meant the mine was safe to work in.

Stock Photography, Coal Miners
Coal Miners from Pennsylvania

Besides spending time at the last coal mine in that area, I was directed to some very elderly miners who had been in Mt Carmel their entire lives. The gentleman I photographed in his home was 94 and still had lots of stories to tell me.

Stock Photography, Coal Miners
Coal Miner At Home

The photograph is about the passage of time. Stacked up paintings on the right once adorned the now empty walls, the almost haunting face from a painting reflected in the mirror- maybe himself as a child, or a child he once had. Work hat still close at hand, once a miner always a miner. Religious momentous surround him even in his last days.

Luckily, many of my photographs were selected by Stock Boston and used over and over. Somewhere out there a child sitting in class may have opened a textbook to find one of my photographs on the page. A History book is ready for an adult in college  and silently my photographs are viewed. Perhaps you will find one the next time you open a book. Enjoy!!

 
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The past eight years have been transitional times for the region known as the Hamptons and for the world of photography. The evolution of the photographic medium has changed the way people capture images, share them, and recall memories. The ebb and flow of the economy, (particularly the ebb in this case, with work being scarcer after the crash of 2008…) created an opportunity for Phillip to focus his energy and creativity on a personal photography project about the culture, landscape and the people of the East End of Long Island.

These Hamptons: A Photography Review

These Hamptons was created at a time when Kodak was shedding its less popular film stocks, and Polaroid was discontinuing many of their products, it gave him one last chance to use many of these products (which initially drew him to the art of photography) for the last time. Varying the cameras, film types and techniques to create the images contribute to the book’s dynamic layout and vast range of imagery. Though the images were only taken a few years ago, many are timeless and nostalgic in nature.

Below are some images which appear in the book.

These Hamptons: A Photography Review

The surfer at Montauk Point was taken in 2009 when Hurricane Bill was moving its way up the coast. Phillip was standing on the edge of the point when a surfer sat down in front of him to take a break. As he sat looking out at his fellow surfers, Phillip managed to a get a few frames of the surfer sitting nearly motionless, which was important for such a long exposure (about 30 seconds.)

These Hamptons: A Photography Review

The Lobster Roll (aka, LUNCH) is an iconic restaurant in Amagansett where after many years, the sign was re-lit with gleaming white neon. Phillip was driving down route 27 on a misty evening when he saw the intense white glow about a mile ahead. The sign never looked better.

These Hamptons was published on May 28th 2013 and is available at BookHampton or on Amazon.com.  If you have never been to The Hamptons and wondered what the buzz is all about or you have been to the Hamptons and love it, this is a beautiful book to own. Read it and come visit and you may see some of the actual locations these photographs were made at.

To Purchase from Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/0764343319

 

 

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