Visit www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071752961042 for more information
I stumbled across the talent of local photographer Barry Hassel on full display Saturday, Oct. 7, during the annual arts festival at Del Webb residential resort.
Hassel was raised in both Brooklyn and Queens, New York. The mysteries author (Richard Standring) I had profiled on in the Oct. 4 Journal Scene also lives there and had a table. I met lots of creatives at the festival, but certainly Hassel’s photography is quite eye-catching – some of them look like a painting.
Hassel takes photos of nature, cityscapes and travel scenes. The Del Webb Cane Bay Resident News magazine also did a feature on Hassel within the last three or four months.
Regan: What turned you on to photography?
Hassel: I first discovered an interest in art at high school. I was told that I had an eye for photography, but I was more of a graphic designer, overall.
R: Did you attend college for photography or graphic arts?
H: Having found my focus, I then majored in graphic design and advertising at Pratt University and the New York City College of Technology. After completing my degree, I began a 35-year career in graphic design. I joined a small firm in New York, but soon discovered I wanted to branch out on my own. I ran the highly successful Group IV Graphics studio in Manhattan’s Chelsea area near the Flat Iron building, which created corporate identity, web design, advertising and collateral print material for clients in fashion, hospitals, food and more. I did have to do a couple of fashion and other photo shoots at times, but my work was primarily focused on graphic design. I did not get into photography back then. I got into shooting pics a lot more once I retired and relocated here almost seven years ago.
R: What brought you to this region from New York?
H: I like the Charleston area — the architecture, the sights. There is a lot of great art here. After retiring and moving to Del Webb, I became a member of the Fine Arts Club Board of Directors, and am co-president of the Del Webb (Cane Bay) Photography Club. I designed the front cover for our Del Webb Cane Bay magazine. I am also a member of the Carolina Nature Photography Association (CNPA), which has several locales throughout the Carolinas, with perhaps a few thousand members. They print a quarterly magazine called “Camera in the Wild” and my photos were selected twice to appear on the cover. My perspective invites the viewer to step into the picture to experience the drama and mood of an image. I cover many topics in the photo club, including intentional camera movement. I have done minimalistic photography. In other words, it’s not busy with a lot of different images and colors to deal with, so you have as little information in the picture as possible. It can be very dramatic. It could be a picture of just water and clouds. It would be a picture that does not have a lot of images and colors to deal with.
R: What is your favorite subject to photograph? Where have you traveled to that you just loved to capture on film? What is your secret to getting the best results?
H: I enjoy both nature and architecture photography, but I also like abstract subjects, too. I like images that tell a story and have a mood or a feeling when you can look at it and each person looking at it may interpret it differently. In terms of travel, we’ve been to England and Italy. In Switzerland, I really liked Zermatt and Lucerne, which were great places — I really liked it there. The most important parts of taking a picture are the time of day, location, composition, depths, emotion and color, which are all key elements. There is something called the “leading line” that brings your eye into the picture, and that’s what you want to accomplish. Thepost-process in photography is also critical as it has an impact on the color and lighting (or the white balancing) of the images.
R: Who are your favorite artists or photographers?
H: Andy Warhol was a great artist. Picasso and Van Gogh were both unbelievably talented artists. I liked Ansel Adams and Mark Klett’s works.
R: Have your works been on display anywhere? Have you ever been in any photo contests?
H: No, I have never really had any interest in doing that. Photography is more of a hobby for me. It keeps my mind going.
R: What are your overall thoughts about photography?
H: My goal in photography is well expressed in a quote by Ansel Adams, who said, “A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” Ansel Adams was criticized in his own day for too much processing in the darkroom. Ansel was famous for saying, “The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.”
Mary E. Regan is a columnist for The Journal Scene and a freelance publicist with her propublicist.com consultancy. She is always seeking new publicity clients and writing projects. Email story ideas to mary@propublicist.com.
