THE NEW YORK TIMES WESTCHESTER WEEKLY DESK

Narratives Woven By a Camera Lens
By Nelly Edmondson Gupta
Published: April 6, 2003

The black and white images are arresting: Hispanic and black children with joyful faces reach toward the camera, their hands full of apples. A wooden Christ on a cross is held aloft by a throng of demonstrators against a background of brick wall. A youngish woman, surrounded by roses, lies on a satin sheet. The viewer wonders: Is she dead or merely asleep?

These pictures are, in many respects, in keeping with the tradition of classic documentary photography, like that of Dorothea Lange, W. Eugene Smith, Walker Evans and Sebastião Salgado, whose work melds art and social activism. All were made recently by photographers living in Westchester who find much of their inspiration in the county they call home.

The photography scene here is much livelier than it was a decade or so ago, according to those involved. ''In the past 15 years things have improved incredibly,'' said Kev Filmore, a photographer and teacher who lives in Croton-on-Hudson. ''As more artists have moved up from Manhattan, there are more display spaces, galleries and forums.'' The Ossining, Croton and Montrose libraries were especially supportive of photography, Ms. Filmore said. ''Peekskill has come a long way too,'' she added, ''and the Ossining Arts Council and the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts in Mount Kisco are thriving.''

 Besides finding more opportunities to exhibit and sell their work, local photographers say there is a richer community of artists with whom to share ideas and resources. ''Westchester photographers are a generous group,'' said Ms. Filmore. ''Everybody is willing to talk to everybody else; we all attend each other's shows -- there's a lot of back and forth.''

The photographers have been documenting the increasing diversity of the county. ''The perception many people have of this county and the people in it -- bedroom community, wealthy -- is not totally accurate,'' said Andrew Courtney, who was recently awarded a $2,500 grant by the Westchester Arts Council to produce a series of photographs of Arabs in Westchester, which will be shown in November at the White Plains Library Gallery at an exhibition titled ''Arab Westchester: A Photographic Portrait.''

Mr. Courtney is drawn to subjects that involve ''underdogs or sacred cows,'' he said. He has photographed people from all over the world, including Vietnam, South Africa and more recently Jerusalem, where for more than 10 years he has documented a community of African Palestinians. ''Because of my work in the Middle East, I have an additional level of fascination and concern for the Arab community here,'' he said. ''I would have done this even if I hadn't gotten a grant.''

What sets documentary photography apart, say those who do it, is that there is virtually always a narrative involved, whether explicit or implied. Unlike a news photographer who arrives at the scene of an accident or ribbon-cutting ceremony, shoots a roll of film and leaves, Mr. Courtney said the documentary photographer ''must immerse him or herself in the subject, and usually goes back to the same subject again and again.''

Deena Weintraub, a photographer in Yorktown Heights, said: ''In documentary photography, you're examining an event and yourself. It's an edgy thing to do.''

Since the mid-1990's, Ms. Weintraub, who has a keen interest in history, has been documenting the conflict over abortion in protests in and around Westchester. Although she supports the right to choose abortion, her pictures show both sides of the conflict. There are anti-abortion protesters carrying signs that say ''Close the Death Camp'' next to pictures of mangled fetuses. There are also supporters of abortion rights holding placards that read, ''Keep the Feds Out of Our Beds.''

''What went on was very political,'' Ms. Weintraub said of the demonstrations. ''People chained themselves to fences. When people are demonstrating in public they are making a very black and white statement. And to document that -- except for the personal fear I've sometimes felt -- is easy.''

For the last few years, Ms. Weintraub has been following several other photographic threads, including the Grange Fair, an annual event in Yorktown. These pictures show ''part of small-town Americana that's disappearing,'' she said. ''They still have pie-tasting and knitting contests. The fair is getting smaller every year; it's kind of sad and tacky -- but it's wonderful.''

While some documentary photographers draw inspiration from the larger world, others use their personal experience as a starting point. ''I make art about whatever I'm doing at the time,'' said Ms. Filmore, who, in addition to doing her own photography, teaches art and photography at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Conn.

After her divorce in 1997, Ms. Filmore's first full-time job was at the Ossining Children's Center, a day care center that mainly draws the working poor. Ms. Filmore was casting around for a photography project when a friend said, ''You have a project -- the kids at the center.''

Ms. Filmore started taking pictures of the children, and after a while, began handing out cameras and letting the children take pictures, too. As her role at the center evolved from teacher to program director, the project gained momentum, and eventually included pictures of the children, their families and the center's staff. Photographs from the series were first shown at the ''Extended Family'' exhibit at the Ossining Public Library.

Ms. Filmore believes the message in these pictures is clear. ''When you strip away outside influences, kids are still kids,'' she said. ''And they offer each other love, care and a sense of community regardless of their color or background origin.''

Ms. Filmore is working on several other projects, including a series on raising autistic children that started when she began taking pictures of a friend's daughter, and a project that follows the struggle of a friend who has advanced cancer. ''Barbara wants me to document what's happening to her,'' Ms. Filmore said of her friend. ''I am intensely collaborative and am involved with my subjects. And making the pictures is fun, even if the story the pictures tell is sad.''

Many documentary photographers say that while they are certainly open to showing and selling their work, money isn't a primary motivation. Most supplement whatever they earn from their pictures with teaching or other day jobs. For many years, Dave Small, 76, of Yorktown Heights, a photographer who mainly takes pictures of Manhattan street life and whose work has been shown in nearly 200 group and solo exhibits, put food on the table by working as a real estate broker and toy salesman. ''But my main love has always been photography,'' he said.

Although some documentary photographers use digital cameras and take color pictures, many still prefer doing things the old-fashioned way.

''People are working back, doing black and white photography and developing their film in the darkroom,'' said Ms. Weintraub. ''When you work in black and white, you're not distracted by color; you're looking at composition, texture, contrast and depth. If you don't know how a picture is chemically constructed, you don't know what can be done with it, even if you sit down at a computer and fool around. It's like learning basic arithmetic and then using fancy calculators. You have to know the basics first.''

Ms. Filmore said that she gives her students solid grounding in how to work with and develop black and white film. ''Photography is about light,'' she said. ''Learning to see and draw and learning how to work in the darkroom are similar.''

In addition to being technically adept, documentarians must be emotionally tuned in. ''You can't be haughty and be a good documentary photographer,'' Ms. Filmore said. ''You have to gain your subjects' trust.''

Achieving intimacy with a subject often requires a photographer to spend a lot of time and take many pictures, most of which will never be exhibited. There is a ''rich churning'' that goes into the best documentary work, said Bill Jorden, who teaches documentary photography at the Westchester Art Workshop at the County Center in White Plains.

''I follow the 'Rule of 100's,''' he said. ''You start by taking 1,000 pictures, you pick 100 that you like and then you edit down to 10. The longer you put into the work, the better the result.''

Some documentary photographers say that the demise of Look and Life magazines was a blow. ''They were the bread and butter of the documentary field,'' said Mr. Small. Photographers, however, have found other ways to put their work in the public eye, he said, mainly through other magazines, newspapers, art galleries and books.

While many documentary photographers concede that television and movies are by far the most influential image-makers now, they say there will always be a place for photography. To them only a still photograph can be seared into memory. ''The most beautiful thing about a photograph is that it doesn't move,'' said Mr. Jorden. ''By holding onto the stillness you're creating a 'point value,' out of which you can read an infinite amount of information. With a moving image it is hard to find those fixed points.''

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE