If a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, then the Peachtree Corners Photography Club (PCPC) must have a good deal to say.
The Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) Festival is the largest annual community-oriented photo festival in the U.S, and our local photography club has decided to participate in the ACP Festival for the first time in 2020.
“Our club is fairly new, having been founded just in 2017, and we have not yet the resources and connections to stage a physical exhibition,” said Ludwig Keck, webmaster for PCPC. “With the opportunity to participate virtually this year, it made sense for us to join in on the action. Our club has also grown this year and we have a lot of great photographers and images we would like to share beyond our own group.”
A showcase of Peachtree Corners life
The general theme that the PCPC selected is “Scenes Around Peachtree Corners,” at ACP Listing #45. The organization issued a call for entries among their members, hoping to encourage club participation in this and other club activities, as well as foster learning opportunities. The full gallery can be found at gallery.pcphotoclub.org.
The online gallery boasts several entirely virtual-related events through ACP. Online livestreams are held periodically, with four more scheduled in recent weeks. On October 17 and 31, as well as November 14 and 28, photo enthusiasts will have a chance to meet the photographers and view new content as the gallery is officially refreshed to allow for more entries.
“We hope to show the visual diversity of Peachtree Corners,” Keck explained, “from the wildlife and sports activities in the Chattahoochee River, Jones Bridge Park, Pinckneyville Park and Simpsonwood, to community events and festivals like the nearby British Car Fayre and the Peachtree Corners Festival (archives), as well as our beautiful spaces like the new Town Green, the Veterans Monument and the architectural wonder of Mary Our Queen Catholic Church.”
A showcase of photography talent
The participating members show their wide range of skill, artistry and creativity in their contributions. Club President Tracey Rice serves on the ACP board, and is proud to have helped PCPC take a step forward.
“Our club board has worked very hard this year to grow the club, add more structure and continually raise the bar on the quality of speakers and programming we offer to our members. We were able to pivot with the pandemic and have continued our monthly club meetings via Zoom since April,” Rice said. “I am a member of two other photography clubs and ours is very special because it is still young and relatively small, which allows everyone an opportunity to have a role in shaping the organization and our programming.”
Members of this burgeoning collective come from all walks of life, united in one noble pursuit: the perfect shot. “Photography connects people, and we need that connection even more than ever this year as we socially distance ourselves,” Rice continued. “Everyone who has a smartphone has a camera, but not everyone takes good pictures.”
Participating Photographers to Check Out
The full list of participating photographers, along with biography information and selected photos, can be found at gallery.pcphotoclub.org/photographers/. Here are a few highlighted Peachtree Corners Photography Club members.
Tracey Rice combines her unique combination of global marketing expertise from a 33-year career at Fortune 100 companies like The Coca-Cola Company and Texas Instruments, with her technical expertise in commercial photography to assist her clients to create the perfect images for every need.
Now retired from an engineering career that connected him to photography, electronics and computing, Ludwig Keck now enjoys imaging the pleasant bits of the world around him. He devotes his spare time to helping others in photography and computer skills.
David Dunagan, PCPC Vice President flickr.com/photos/daviddunaganphotography/ David Dunagan has lived in Peachtree Corners for 32 years. Once he retired in 2014, he took up photography as a hobby, with an emphasis on nature photography.
Brian Walton pursues photography as an art form as well as a vehicle to capture moments in time to help preserve the legacy of people, places and things. He is passionate about portraits, fashion, macro photography, experimental techniques and editing.
Bob Chadwick is a long-time Peachtree Corners resident, having moved to the area with his family in 1992. An avid hobbyist, he started with film back in the 1980s. He was a staff photographer for the Gwinnett Stripers and has shot sports for the local high schools.
Kelsey Asher is a proud graduate of the University of West Georgia with a Bachelor’s in Communications. She has held a variety of marketing leadership roles for several small, startup companies in a variety of industries including publishing, construction and technology.
The special exhibition of the Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will run January 17 through May 25, 2025
In the mid-1970s, artist and Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston, along with his wife and collaborator Loraine, began collecting works by artists who were in the vanguard of contemporary art. Today, they hold one of the finest collections of postwar American drawings and related objects of its kind, now numbering more than 85 works.
In 2025, the High Museum of Art will present Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, featuring their collected works, which is a promised gift to the museum. Featuring artists such as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Al Taylor, Anne Truitt, Stanley Whitney and Terry Winters, among others, the exhibition will demonstrate how establishing the parameters of an art collection requires infinite patience, focus, discipline and a keen eye.
“The Johnstons have been friends of the High for a very long time. They’ve also built an impressive collection featuring works by many of the 20th century’s most significant abstract artists,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are honored that they have promised to leave their collection to the Museum where it will be preserved for future generations — and we are delighted that they are sharing it with our audiences now, hopefully inspiring the next generation of art collectors and supporters.”
A curated collection
The Johnstons’ story is a testament to, in the words of the High’s Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Michael Rooks, “knowing the difference between what is right and what is almost right” when building a collection.
Although the Johnstons acquired several paintings and objects when they first began collecting in 1972, they quickly narrowed their focus to drawing, primarily by artists working on the frontlines of abstraction in the mid-1960s during a time of great innovation and experimentation.
Rooks added, “Med and Loraine’s collection struck me at once by its single-minded focus on a specific moment in time, which was essentially the time of their contemporaries. The artists in their collection are like close friends to the Johnstons — in fact many are or were. What is equally astonishing about the collection is the Johnstons’ dogged pursuit of quality. Their in-depth knowledge of each artist’s practice combined with their understanding of specific qualities to look for — or more appropriately, to hold out for — will be a revelation to emerging collectors.”
The Johnstons have built their collection with the High in mind as the benefactor of their passion and discernment. For them, their collection “is a labor of love, pursued over more than 50 years, and we are delighted to be able to help the High Museum document and celebrate these important artists working during the same decades as our lives.”
About the exhibit
Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will be presented in the Special Exhibition Galleries on the second level of the High’s Stent Family Wing.
The exhibit is organized by the High Museum of Art and made possible through the generosity of sponsors:
Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Premier Exhibition Series Supporters Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr., The Fay S. and W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation, Harry Norman Realtors and wish Foundation
Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters Robin and Hilton Howell
Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters Loomis Charitable Foundation and Mrs. Harriet H. Warren
Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Farideh and Al Azadi, Mary and Neil Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Megan and Garrett Langley, Margot and Danny McCaul, Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller and Belinda Stanley-Majors and Dwayne Majors.
Support has also been provided by the Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund and USI Insurance Services.
About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs.
Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 19,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper.
The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process.
For more information about the High or to purchase tickets, visit high.org.
The megahit musical Jersey Boys makes its regional premiere in City Springs Theatre Company’s (CSTC) first-ever, five-week run at the Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs.
Directed by Atlanta’s-own Shane DeLancey, and choreographed by Meg Gillentine, Jersey Boys tells the rags-to-riches story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. The show details their remarkable journey from the streets to the top of the charts, to their 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Leading the cast of Jersey Boys is Haden Rider as Frankie Valli. Rider is a City Springs Theatre Company veteran, with recent roles in both Legally Blonde (Emmett) and Fiddler on the Roof (Perchik).
Presented by Resurgens Spine Center, Jersey Boys runs from July 12 through August 11, and shines a special spotlight on home-grown talent, as the show’s four leading men are all Atlanta-area residents.
With phenomenal music, memorable characters and great storytelling, Jersey Boys follows the fascinating evolution of four blue-collar kids who became one of the greatest successes in pop-music history.
“City Springs Theatre Company is very proud to be the first in the southeast region to present Jersey Boys,” said CSTC Artistic Director and Tony Award-winner Shuler Hensley. “Our audiences have been asking for this particular show since we opened. The production is truly stacked with talent onstage and off, and we’re pulling out all the stops to bring audiences an experience that will rival any previous version of the show.”
Jersey Boys premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2005, prior to its 13-year Broadway run, from 2005 to 2017. There have been productions of the show in Las Vegas, UK/Ireland, Toronto, Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan, Dubai and China.
Jersey Boys features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, and lyrics by Bob Crewe.
Individual tickets to see Jersey Boys are on sale now ($42 – $108), with discounts for seniors, students, groups and active and retired military personnel.
CSTC’s Box Office is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Courtney Escorza, Colleen Nikopour, Laura Hwang, Jennifer Jackson, Norcross. Laura ELizabeth Martin, Payton Hirschmann, Paul Duke HS
From May 11 through May 18, the Norcross Gallery & Studios kicked off a fantastic exhibition, Reflections at Rectory, which showcased the works of 36 rising stars: AP and IB art students from our local high schools.
The opening reception celebrated their creativity and dedication. Gallery director Anne Hall presented a dozen awards generously sponsored by the community, a testament to the local support for these young artists.
One prestigious award, the Terri Enfield Memorial Award, holds special significance.
Established by Terri’s daughters, it recognizes not just artistic excellence, but also leadership, work ethic and the spirit of collaboration. Last year’s winner, Aidan Ventimiglia, even played a part in selecting this year’s recipient Jasmine Rodriguez.
Reflections at Rectory
Congratulations to all the student artists.
Students in the second annual Reflections at the Rectory exhibit