The James Prendergast Library Art Gallery will present digital photographs by Angus Watkins of Ashville and Bob Gibbon of Lakewood in a show called “Some Things Old and New,” which runs Oct. 21 through Nov. 25.
They will greet people and answer questions about their work during an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, in the gallery. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.
Watkins has explored the possibilities and uses of the fine arts for most of his life and work, inspired by theologian Paul Tillich who said “pictures, poems, art and music can unveil the truth and power of [the Extraordinary].” In recent years, he has exhibited visual material through multimedia presentations, galleries, park centers, churches and fundraising events.
According to Watkins, “What’s always mattered has been trying to discover, even catch, the extraordinary in the context of outings to near and far places.”
He said it is funny but maddening if a spectacular shot presents itself when he does not have his camera equipment with him or the subject disappears while he is getting a lens.
“Occasional good luck and fortuitous accident, together with ongoing learning, continue to make this art form fascinating and beguiling,” he said.
Watkins said he has been “an outdoors ‘nut’ ” since boyhood years in the Dakotas and Montana on Indian reservations and has had a penchant for gathering material while hiking and birding in wild places ever since. He has discovered subjects for pictures on trips to places such as Florida, the Southwest and Newfoundland, in addition to finding fascinating landscapes and waterscapes in Chautauqua County.
“After a lifetime of trying to shoot memorable moments with mixed results using old cameras on family vacations, dropping equipment off cliffs on climbing trips or overboard on canoe trips, I decided it was time to either give up on photography altogether or get some camera bodies and lenses that cost enough that I’d be more careful. I did the latter,” Watkins said.
His writing and poems have appeared in multiple publications. Winning a Just Buffalo Writer-in-Residence competition sponsored by New York State Council on the Arts led to a stint of public readings in Western New York and classroom appearances in Jamestown schools. He has also taken part in county arts council contests and is completing a second volume of poems.
Watkins has served as a poet in residence and trip photojournalist for First Presbyterian Church of Jamestown and as a board member for the Arts Council of Chautauqua County and the Infinity Center for Performing Arts. He’s a member of the Jamestown Audubon Photography Club and an avid reader and fisherman. He and his wife, Anne, live in Ashville.
Co-exhibitor Gibbon said, “I love taking pictures, then ‘discovering’ the results on my memory cards and doing ‘darkroom’ work on the one in 500 that merits further consideration.”
He said he always has a camera with him and usually “works a subject” by taking 20 pictures at a time.
“I rarely go on a picture hunt, but I am always open to that pattern or color that grabs my attention (like bubbles in a Pepsi),” he said.
Gibbon describes himself as a self-taught photographer who has had a lot of help over the past 10 years from friends, including library/gallery curators, the Jamestown Audubon Society Photo Club, artists, magazines, a few chapters in books and various Web sites. He credits his wife, Marion, for pointing out scenes he might have missed.
“For awhile I upgraded my pocket camera every year or so, but they’re all so good now, that they seem to have leveled off, and I haven’t ‘needed’ a new camera in about three years” he said.
Close up work is an ongoing special interest, and he also enjoys informal portrait work of adults and children.
He has exhibited before at the Prendergast, Lakewood and Falconer libraries as well as The Resource Center, Chautauqua County Mental Health, the Gebbie Foundation, the Fenton History Center, the Downtown Development Corporation and a few galleries. His work has also appeared in charity auctions and private collections.
In his joint show with Watkins this fall, he plans to exhibit some pictures taken with his first “digital camera” – an add-on accessory to a Palm Pilot from 2001.
“It took 0.3 megapixel pictures. A few years later the first cell phone cameras took 2 megapixel pictures, seven times as big!” he said.
Gallery hours for the exhibit by Watkins and Gibbon at Prendergast Library will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays; and 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays.
The next library exhibit will feature works by art students at The Resource Center.