Please Attend “NoFo Up Close” Photo Exhibit to Benefit Kent
NoFo: Up Close, A Photo Exhibit and Benefit Event for Kent Animal Shelter
When: Saturday, August 6, 2011, 12-3PM
Where: Peconic Bay Winery, 31320 Main Road, Cutchogue
Description: Enjoy unique visions of the North Fork by Wading River photographer, Jason Nadler at NoFo: Up Close, a photo exhibit and benefit event for Kent Animal at Peconic Bay Winery in Cutchogue. Photography purchases can be paid by cash, check, or invoiced through PayPal. Admission: $12 pp in advance, $15 at the door, includes one glass of wine/beverage and hors d’oeuvres. Additional glasses of wine are $8 with half going to Kent Animal Shelter. Sponsored by: Peconic Bay Winery, Parties ‘n All, Nadler Photo Design. To purchase tickets, go to www.NadlerPhotoDesign.com/NoFo.
About Jason and the NoFo Up Close Exhibit
Jason Nadler has been taking wonderful photos of pets at Kent Animal Shelter for a long time as a volunteer. We want you to know more about him, his work, and why he does it, so we interviewed him for this blog:
Jason, please tell us about yourself, such as where you live, what else you do, what animals you have at home, how old you are, your background, and special training.
I’m 40 years old. I grew up in Commack NY in the 70′s and 80′s, but have been living in Wading River for seven years, having moved from Rocky Point, where I lived for over 12 years. I absolutely love NoFo. I think very few people think of Long Island, or even New York for that matter, in terms of agriculture, green space, and farming. It’s this rural aspect that holds the most appeal for me as an artist because the change of seasons is actually amplified by the surroundings as tourists and part-time residents come and go and the seasons change. When the environment is so lush with life, each season has very distinct color and appeal, so I can keep photographing the same things year round and always find inspiration.
I believe in giving back, and felt that photographing animals for Kent was a good way to put my talent to good use. I am also a volunteer firefighter here in Wading River. I never realized that doing this kind of work could be so fulfilling. Some weeks I am running on shoots and calls at all hours, but I find it so fulfilling. I am very lucky for the life I have and the partner in crime I share it with, and I am just driven to these activities because of what they do for me spiritually.
At home I have my sanctuary, where I try to spend as much time as possible with my wife, who travels extensively for her job. We have three cats who rent the space to us, Chaos, CJ, and Coco. They’re all tuxedos, black and white, and while they look similar, their personalities could not be more different. I believe that animals are often mirrors of their environment, giving back what they receive, so they are great indicators of peace in our household. They are all rescues; we adopted Coco and CJ from Kent last September.
Much of the time that I’m home, I’m processing photos. I use the digital darkroom to develop and transform my photographs to suit my style. In this day and age when everyone has a digital camera, I feel that a photographer has to do more than take pictures. There has to be art in there somewhere, it can’t just be a capture of what was already there but something personal to me. I actually went to college at Stony Brook for English Literature, thinking I would become a teacher. Growing up, my parents always encouraged my artistic tendencies, but believed that art was best left as a pastime, not a career. Not following my passions, however, left me longing, so eventually I made the difficult decision to follow my talents, and while it has not always been easy, I have not looked back. My wife has been unbelievably supportive of my decision; she has seen how much happier it has made me, and I owe her a constant debt of gratitude for her unyielding support and love.
I took a photography class back in High School, and worked with a wedding photographer in the early 90′s, but photography didn’t become something I was passionate about until digital came became an option. I like taking something I see, capturing it, refining it, making it personal to me, and then sharing it, and film photography just didn’t provide that to me. There was too great a delay between the shot and the finished product and too many other factors affecting the final result. Digital has allowed me to explore photography deeper, to be the photographer, to be the developer (without the awful chemicals), and to be the artist. I’ve done a lot of reading; I even briefly went back to school for photography, but found that I was already beyond what the education was offering. Every time a new upgrade to software I use comes out, there’s reading to be done, so it’s a never-ending process of self-education. I have become friends with a few of the authors that write the books I trusted, and now they call on me to help assist at trade shows and classes. I’ve been involved with Adobe (the company that makes the programs I use), both in beta-testing their products, and in studies they have run to advance their technology. It’s a great thrill to see the evolution of a product and know that in a small way I had a part in it. Now, much of my learning is experimenting. Pure trial and error. See what works and what doesn’t, apply the lesson, and grow. I might take a dozen photographs of the same subject just to get one image that holds up to what drew me in the first place. I also believe in sharing what I have learned, and teach whenever someone is interested in learning. Teaching is often the best way of learning, because it brings you back to the basics and reinforces the fundamentals.
When did you start taking photographs of homeless animals at Kent Animal Shelter?
I started taking photographs at Kent over five years ago in 2006. I wanted to do something to help, and believe that when the thing that you love doing and something you believe in collide, a path is created that you should follow. I called Pam Green, the director at Kent, and left the most rambling message on her machine. Just thinking about it now is embarrassing, but I didn’t think they’d want someone to help just taking pictures, and I felt I had to convey my passion. Fortunately, she didn’t find it as awe-inspiringly geeky as I thought she would, and I have been coming to Kent almost once every week since then, as well as photographing their benefits.
Do any particular animals stand out in your mind from your years of taking photos?
In the spring of 2010, two of our cats died within weeks of one another: Ebony of kidney failure, and Nicodeamus of cancer. It was not a good time. That left just Chaos, who at 13 years old at the time, was also the love-grub, and he did not handle the stress of the losses well. Nicki (Nicodeamus) was our first cat, adopted from a shelter, and Ebony found us. My wife was in a store when Chaos called out to her. He is the most amazing cat; we call him a furry little boy. After the loss, neither of us was ready to add to our family, but my wife said that one day a cat would call out to us again. So, when I was photographing a kindle of kittens and one did not stop yelling at me, I knew it was time. There have been many, but so often I see a pet at Kent only once because they are adopted shortly afterwards.
One cat that stood out for me was a white cat with black ears that was obviously blind in one eye. The marking in that eye kept her from being adopted for a very long time, but she was so sweet and would come right over to me, often coming between my camera and my intended subject because she wanted attention. There have been a few dogs who I have photographed who had the most amazing personalities. All they wanted was to be loved and spoken to. These dogs would be brought out of the kennel and immediately pose for me. I remember one dog who had been abused before being rescued by Kent. When he came out of the kennel, he walked right up to me, lay down at my feet and rolled over to have his belly rubbed. Those are the days that photographing the animals is very hard, because you want to take them with you.
What do you love about animals and what are you trying to capture in their photos?
I try very hard to treat all the cats and dogs as portrait subjects. Sometimes a “subject” strikes a perfect pose. Sometimes they’re shy; sometimes they’re terrified of the strange man with the camera. Every one is different. The challenge with photographing pets (especially orphaned pets) is getting through the fears and anxieties they have (because they’ve been abandoned or mistreated, or living in other kennels before coming to Kent) and getting to that moment when they let go and let their true expression come to the surface. When that happens, it’s always my favorite photo of the day because I not only got what I came for, but I know that once in a home, that pet will truly become a member of a great family.
Tell us about your photography and the photos you’ve chosen for NoFo Up Close, the fundraiser you’ve put together for Kent Animal Shelter.
I believe that every artist has a thing – a style, a subject that they are constantly drawn back to. For me, one of those things is photographing detail in such a way that the object being photographed loses its meaning and the detail becomes the story I am telling. It’s sort of like looking at a single rose petal – you know where it came from, but when you really look at it by itself, there’s beauty that you can’t see when you look at the entire rose.
I decided that I didn’t want to use too many photographs that I already had taken. I wanted to create a collection that was fresh and representative of the location and the season. I guess that’s the complicated way of saying that I haven’t chosen them all yet! I have been traveling the North Fork in my spare time and taking pictures. From my own front yard to the wineries, to the beaches of Orient, when I see something that inspires me I go to work. Sometimes it’s a flower, sometimes it’s machinery, sometimes it’s just a pattern of shadow and light. It’s about slowing down and taking a better look at the beauty that is all around us on the North Fork.
To purchase tickets to NoFo Up Close, go to www.NadlerPhotoDesign.com/NoFo.
