Music Icons and Bed-Stuy Featured in Photography Exhibition

Press release
Source: Modern Music Publications

Gallery 225 in New York City will host a photography exhibition featuring the work of Joseph A. Rosen (Blues and Jazz Portraiture) and Martin Kornfeld (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, c. 1968-72) from April 2 through May 5, 2007, with an opening reception on April 5 from 6-8 p.m. The gallery is located at 225 West 14th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, and is open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Among the 25 black and white images Rosen is displaying are icons such as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson and Les Paul. Joseph A. Rosen is a working professional photographer based in New York City. He regularly free-lances for major corporations as well as national and local publications. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time and Sports Illustrated. Joe is a contributing photographer for both Living Blues and Blues Revue magazines and online publication, Modern Guitars magazine. He has done cover photography of Mavis Staples, Buddy Guy, Etta James, the Holmes Brothers, Ike Turner and Bettye Lavette for these publications, in addition to the frequent appearance of his photos inside the magazines.

Rosen had this to say about the images he'll exhibit: "My music photography is only one aspect of my photographic life. It is fair and accurate to say that it is the subject matter about which I am most passionate. While I photograph all aspects of the blues, jazz, soul and roots music that I love, my signature work would be characterized as portraiture. Whether shot during performance, in the studio or simply hanging around backstage, I hope to capture the personality, emotion, energy and spirit of the artists and their endeavors. When the photographs are successful, they are portraits of both the musician and the music."

He has dedicated his participation in the exhibit to the memory of his friend, photographer Gene Martin (1951 - 2006).

Martin Kornfeld, born in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn in 1928, spent his childhood in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the East Bronx, and a return to Brownsville, Brooklyn in his teen years. He developed an interest in photography at the age of 12. He graduated from the Art and Design High School in Manhattan (photography major) in 1946. In 1948, he enlisted in the Regular Army and became a Signal Corp photographer and spent two years in Active Service and an additional five years with an Army Reserve photo group. In 1975, Kornfeld opened a photography studio that he continues to operate. He received his Master Degree from the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) in 1985. Several of his images are part of the permanent loan collection of the PPA. His photograph “A Mother’s Grief” was chosen to appear in the PPA 2005 showcase book. His work has been shown in galleries in Sag Harbour, New York and SoHo in New York City.

Kornfeld had this to say about his Bedford-Stuyvesant series of images: "The images displayed in this exhibit are a glimpse into a period of my life where I spent working in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The everyday exposure of myself in the community created a trust between my subjects and my camera. I never felt like a voyeur or someone who was peering into somebody’s private space. At the time, I had no intention of a planned project or documentary, it was purely a labor of love. I have strong personal feelings about these photos because they are a residue of the riots of the late Sixties that I witnessed first hand. These images were created in a short period of time using approximately twelve rolls of film. The iron gates, the broken sidewalks, the barbed wire fences and the boarded- up dwellings were a backdrop for the children’s universal smiles and their creative childlike behavior."

225 Gallery
225 West 14th St.
Between 7th and 8th Avenues.
New York, NY 10011
212-691-8156
www.14thstreetframing.com

Dates
April 2 to May 5, 2007
Opening Reception:
Thursday, April 5, 2007 6pm - 8pm.

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