Our amazing, small, Southern town is always jam-packed with cultural opportunities. If you are crazy about photography like me, be sure to check out “In Focus,” a two-month long, town-wide festival of photography created by FRANK Gallery. The festival includes:

  • An exhibit by eleven diverse fine-art photographers at the FRANK Gallery at 109 E. Franklin Street. They include Alan Dehmer, Peter Filene, Barbara Tyroler, Bill McAllister, Bryce Lankard, John Rosenthal, Caroline Vaughan, and Wojtek Wojdynski, Jackie Tait Leebrick, Sam Wang and Peg Gignoux.
  • Panel discussions
  • An outdoor slideshow
  • An area-wide photo scavenger hunt

In the next week alone you can get your photography fix by attending:
 
Thursday, September 27 at 6 p.m. at the FRANK gallery: John Rosenthal presents Guggenheim Fellowship and NC Artist Fellowship award winning photographer David Spear.
 
Friday, September 28  at 6 p.m. at Daylight Magazine at 121 W. Margaret Ln, Hillsborough: Opening reception for Daylight Photo Awards winner and a book signing for Kevin Kunishi’s book ‘Los Restos de la Revolucion.’
 
Saturday, September 29 at 6 p.m. at UNC’s Carroll Hall auditorium: A talk called, “Artistic Trajectories: Voices in Contemporary Photography.” If Ansel Adams is your primary reference to Fine Art photography then you haven’t been paying attention. They will look at trends in contemporary photography with photographers whose work is at the forefront. The panel will include Jeff Whetsone, a UNC Art Professor, Jacquelyn Leebrick, a professor at ECU University, photographer Lori Vrba and Gilbert Leebrick the gallery director ECU University.
 
Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 1 p.m. at the Carolina Inn: A discussion called, “The Informed Collector- How and Why to Collect Photography.” With new records set at auctions seemingly every month, the value of the photograph is at an all time high. The wide range of contemporary photographic expression is producing a new generation of emerging artists whose work can be collected at very modest cost. The Getty Museum has called photography the “most important medium.” This talk will address how and why does one start and grow a collection of fine art photography? Panel participants will include Roylee Duvall, director, Through this Lens Gallery, in Durham, NC, Gabrielle Larew, director, Doma Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Jennifer Schwartz of the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery in Atlanta, GA, Frank Konhaus, a photography collector from Chapel Hill, Dr. Jim Finch, also a photography collector, and finally Ann Flanders of the Flanders Gallery in Raleigh, NC.
 
Immediately following “The Informed Collector” at 3 p.m. participants will gather in the South Parlor for a cocktail reception with the panelists. They will take a guided tour of the Carolina Inn’s photography exhibit given by the curator, Dr. Kenneth Zogry.
 
Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 6 p.m. at the Frank Gallery:​ “The Documentary Project.” Presenters include: Vincent Joos with, “Little Haiti, Mount Olive, North Carolina: Documenting the Haitian Immigration in Eastern North Carolina;” Jessica Kennedy who will share, “The Shifting Face of Agriculture in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina;” Christopher Sims an instructor Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies with “Theater of War: The Pretend Villages of Iraq and Afghanistan,” and, finally, DL Anderson and Jeremy Lange, Independent photographers with “The Farmer Veteran.”
 

This festival runs through November 1, 2012, so be sure to check out their calendar of events. As always, thanks for reading!