Written by Colin Secore
Photography by Colin Secore
Being a member of PUGG and working under the D.R.A.W. has come with many benefits, with my personal favorite being the connections I’ve made. We do a lot of moving around and meeting new people. In my work here, photography has become a greater aspect of what I do and what I’m passionate about. Documenting events and classes have become almost second nature.
The Center for Photography in Woodstock, or the CPW, moved to Kingston, into a building on Broadway in 2021. In the summer of 2022, they were offering a workshop led by the photojournalist Doug Menuez for local youth. Because of my recent interest in photography, Lara Giordano recommended it to me. It was the perfect opportunity.
The workshop focused on storytelling through photography, and it was followed by an exhibition featuring workshop participants’ photos that told a story. I learned a lot from Doug, and the show was very special to me. It was direct proof of the eye for photography I had developed, which was presented professionally. I also learned a lot about Doug himself, who had plenty of stories about his many travels and past adventures. It may have been off-topic much of the time, but it was fascinating.
Afterward, CPW was seeking interns and I applied. Fellow PUGG Nick Carroll and I were hired as gallery sitters for CPW’s show, “Ernest Withers: The Picture Taker,” which was held at Aaron Rezny’s gallery, located in Kingston. I then sat at CPW’s main gallery on Saturdays, where I’ve been working ever since.
Being a gallery sitter is a relatively peaceful job. It’s always quiet, even when people come in to observe the works on display. Whenever visitors talk, their tone is appropriately soft. The air is still, only disturbed by the ambient sounds of Kingston’s Broadway and the occasional phone call. It might seem like a draining duty, especially considering its six hours a day, but for me personally it is an appreciated change of pace from daily life.
One aspect of being a gallery sitter that’s very rewarding is being surrounded by professional photography that’s emotionally moving. The talented photographers that the CPW works with consistently provide and uphold a high standard of art. For the time I’ve worked there, the exhibitions we’ve held have told dozens of stories. People’s struggles, successes, and their adventures have all been on display at a location that’s very accessible. Another benefit of the internship has been meeting the artists themselves. The CPW has an artist residency program and hosts at least one artist talk a week, giving ample opportunity to hear about the stories and processes straight from the artist’s mouth. Being an intern gives me the opportunity to directly connect with artists.
In December, a new, unusual gallery-sitting venture arose: a temporary exhibition located in an old IBM building. “Parallel Lives: Photography, Identity, and Belonging,” on display through February 5th, was an incredible show made up of the work of thirteen different photographers representing vastly different methods of photography and printing. The show itself was breathtaking, but the location made it dreamlike. It was a long-abandoned building with haunting empty rooms and old elevators, and the entrance to the exhibition was difficult to find. The abandoned corporate landscape was a strange choice for the exhibition. It drew visitors to a corner of Kingston they may have never seen before.
Interview with Micah
Micah Fornari is a dedicated employee at CPW who got his start as an intern through D.R.A.W. While interning at CPW, he attended multiple workshops and designed the poster for CPW’s Community Day, where each Wednesday people can come in and use the print studio for free. He is now being trained to run the print lab.
I interviewed him about his experiences at the CPW, especially as an artist. When asked how he likes working there, Micah said, “It’s chill. I like being able to help people figure out how to make their stuff real. It’s on a computer, I help them, and then it’s on paper in real life. And that’s just beautiful.
“Sarrah and Nicole are awesome,” he said, referring to Sarrah Danziger who runs the print lab, and Nicole Leonardo, who oversees the internship program. “They’re very passionate about giving back to the community, and they’ve been very gracious and kind to me, giving up their time to teach me and hang out with me and be friends.”
When asked what Micah had learned, he said, “I always thought [photography] was the most boring art form. But after coming to the artist talks that CPW hosts and after meeting a lot of photographers and helping them print their stuff, as well as seeing the wide range of diversity of stuff people can do and the different processes that people use to make photography, I realized it’s actually a lot more interesting and involved than I thought.
“I want to keep picking up these skills,” Micah said when I asked what he wanted from this job in the future, “because printing isn’t just useful for photography, it’s helpful as an illustrator to know how to print my work, and it inspired me to experiment with blending illustration and photography. So learning about printing, how printers work, and how to fix them when they mess up. Stuff like that, really practical stuff, is really helpful to me.
“I also want to make connections. This is a way for me to meet a lot of artists, not just from Kingston and all over New York, but all over the country and maybe even outside the country. I want connections, technical skills, and working on myself as a human being and experiencing what it’s like to do this job.”
Talking with Micah bolstered my ambition to get more involved with CPW. CPW hosts a highly advanced printing studio and numerous workshops, and I would love to participate more. There are advanced printers in the CPW studio I have yet to make use of, upcoming artist talks I want to be present for, and future workshops I want to attend.
The prospect of a stable job in the arts is a path that can be filled with uncertainty. The D.R.A.W. functions as the bridge that leads young artists to their future careers. The more experience I have with CPW, the more the D.R.A.W. has delivered on that promise. Now that I see an interesting and meaningful future, I'm not so plagued with uncertainty.
