by Nomi Waksberg
This photo presentation and exhibit goes back seven months before
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Through photographs of a
cross section of the city’s neighborhoods. Her photos wonderfully
capture lushness as it descends over the communities. We see
personal pride in well maintained lawns and homes, the unassuming
ordinariness of life enclosed by a friendly spirit of southern
hospitality and simple pleasures. It gives tribute to the heroic
people of New Orleans and the places which existed and hopefully
will be restored.
For the past 20 years, Nomi Waksberg has been taking pictures
dealing with the concept of place as portrait. She has catalogued
over 25,000 images and within the past four years has been editing
and sorting these pictures into topic specific portfolios for
presentation. “Jewels Before Katrina” is part of this portfolio
project.
Ms. Waksberg has taught at the College of New Jersey and
participated in various professional panel presentations and
discussions. She is the recipient of New Jersey Council of the Arts
Grants, NEA Project Grant for “Three on Three”and the Bea Camhi
Award, Hudson River Museum of Art, NY.
She has been creating work in her New Jersey studio since receiving
an MFA degree from Rutgers University in 1972. Prior studies
included postgraduate courses at the Maryland Institute of Art and
studies at the Ohio State University, where she completed her BFA
degree with honors and studied with printmaker Sidney
Chafetz.
Ms. Waksberg was born in post war Dresden, Germany. She and her
family lived in over 26 different places in the first 12 years of
her life. It is no doubt because of this, that a special
sensitivity to the uniqueness of place and the portrait it could
convey has become important themes in Ms.Waksberg’s work.
Date
Friday, September 24, 2010
Location
Staten Island Campus
Kiernan Suite, Kelleher Center
Time
Noon
Sponsored by
University Library
For more information, visit www.stjohns.edu/lectureseries