February Issue 2001
DownTownes in Greenville, SC, Offers Exhibit of Photographs by Leah Kennedy
DownTownes in Greenville, SC, will be featuring Time Stops, an exhibit of hand-tinted black and white photographs from Mexico and Costa Rica by Leah Kennedy. The exhibition will be on view from Feb. 8 through Mar. 22.
Kennedy is a writer, editor, and photographer living in New York City. In addition to her photography and her writing in the field of health and medicine, she currently works as Senior Protect Editor at the Foundation for Better Health Care.
From 1989 to 1992, Kennedy lived part-time in Greenville before moving full-time to New York to pursue her career. While in Greenville, she took drawing and design classes at the Greenville County Museum School of Art. In New York, she studied photography at the world renowned International Center of Photography. Her work has been published in print pieces, as illustrations for webzine articles, has been exhibited in group shows in New York, and is represented in private collections internationally. This is her first solo exhibition.
Kennedy's interest in hand-colored photographs began about 20 years ago. "I've always been captivated by the look of vintage hand-tinted photos, and I started collecting them from flea markets, yard sales, and second-hand stores." In 1996, when she became more involved in shooting her own black and white photos, she decided to try her hand at painting on the prints to achieve alternative effects that fell somewhere between a black and white photograph and a color photograph.
As a photographer and journalist, Kennedy has traveled to such places as South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, northern Europe, Mexico, and Costa Rica. "I have been to Mexico six times," she says. "I especially love photographing there because the land, people, and colors are so vibrant and warm."
Her association, beginning in 1997 with a Costa Rican photographer exhibiting in New York who became her first teacher, led her on two journeys to Central America. "I learned darkroom techniques entirely in Spanish," she notes," and those instructions still run through my head each time I print."
The year 2000 was a landmark year for Kennedy,
as she was diagnosed with eye cancer, otherwise known as ocular
melanoma. "I never even knew such a thing existed!,"
she says. The irony of a photographer having eye cancer does not
escape her, but she notes that fortunately, the cancer did not
occur in her dominant (photo-taking) eye.
"Things happen for a reason," she believes. "Having
eye cancer was my cue to accelerate all things possible in life.
And photography is definitely a part of that."
For further information check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings or call the gallery at 864/232-4403 or check
their web site at (http://www.crosbystills.com).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.