I am a Wedding and event photographer serving Boston and New England; specializing in the candid moment, capturing the life, fun and emotion. Many words are used to describe and define my style of photography. These include photojournalistic, telling a story, documentary and of course candid. I like to consider myself all of these.
My ultimate goal is to be unobtrusive, moving, capturing the moment as it unfolds in a style that is relaxed and natural. Ninety percent of my picture taking is done in this fashion, while the other ten percent is what I like to call "natural portraiture" and is otherwise known as formal pictures. My aim in taking these pictures is to make it as fun as possible while catering to your needs.
Keep in mind that I am first and foremost an artist. Please visit my Art Studio to view work and upcoming projects. I strive to bring my artistic sensibility to the event day so as to capture unique, fun and spontaneous moments. I hope to hear from you soon!
Congratulations! Robert Castagna Photography has been chosen as a top wedding professional in The Knot Best of Weddings 2010.
What sets this honor apart from others is that it`s not just your colleagues (or even The Knot) bestowing this award on your business—the recognition comes from REAL BOSTON BRIDES who were thrilled with the level of service you brought to their wedding day.
NEW THIS YEAR, instead of a separate national magazine, we are including the results in the local Boston magazine on newsstands in December and there will be a strong online promotion that will highlight all the local vendors!
Brookline - People have been wandering in and out of artists’ studios in Brookline since 1986. Granted, it only happens two days a year, and it’s organized, so this isn’t about breaking and entering.
It happens again on Saturday and Sunday at the 2008 edition of Brookline Artists’ Open Studios, during which artists all over town — some in group spaces, others in single studios — will invite the public in to get a peak at the artistic life.
To view entire article and photograph by Robert Castagna appearing at the Brookline Arts Center go to Brookline TAB.
The WORLD-RENOWNED Rolly-Michaux Galleries isn`t resting on its easels. The famed art gallery, located in the historic Vendome building on Dartmouth Street and acclaimed as one of the most exciting exhibition spaces in Boston, is expanding its scopes as it celebrates its fortieth anniversary.
The Galleries, under the direction of Ronald Rolly and Ronald Michaux, has launched its first exhibit of photography - "The Art of Mystery - Kyoto in its Season." The exhibit features the photographs of Robert Castagna, "who captured with his lens the poetry of that fabled city," according to Rolly and Michaux. Bostonians have come to expect the best from Rolly-Michaux and the two partners in the business are proud of their esteemed place in the international arts community.
To view complete article go to photographer`s blog.
The photograph "Temple Roof" from the Kyoto Series was published on the front cover of New England`s culture magazine "artscope". The jurors that selected the image include: Frederick Osborne, President, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts; Vivian Zoe, Director, Slater Memorial Museum and artscope writer Rick Agran. Included with the image was the following artist statement: This series of photographs from Kyoto, Japan present abstract views of shadows, detail, mystery and nature in the tradition of the haiku. My goal is to walk the line, capturing the zen spirit through abstraction and simplicity.
The Jewish Advocate, the oldest continually-circulated Jewish newspaper in the United States released their Wedding and Celebration Guide. On the cover is another of Robert`s wedding photographs. To view the cover go to The Jewish Advocate.
Feature writer, Terry House, explores the creative process for Robert Castagna`s new series of work entitled "The Art of Mystery, Kyoto in its Season" showing through June 9, 2007 at Rolly Michaux Gallery. To read complete article go to Beat Magazine Feature.
Cover Art: “After Rain, Kyoto,” color photograph by Robert Castagna available exclusively at Rolly-Michaux Gallery of Boston.
The Jewish Advocate, the oldest continually-circulated Jewish newspaper in the United States recently released their Wedding and Celebration Guide. On the cover is Robert`s wedding photography depicting Ron, Julie and Rabbi Larry Bazer. To view the cover go to The Jewish Advocate.
"A cliché we’ve seen before? Yes, but POP PHOTO’s editors say the peeling wall, the broom, the clothesline attached to a rainspout, the boarded window and door, and the diagonal shaft of sunlight that bisects the picture make this bike-against-a-wall photo a compositional delight. [To view image go to The Italian Series.] Shot by Robert Castagna of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during a bike trip through Peschiera del Garda, in Northern Italy. Tech info: Canon EOS Rebel; 28-90mm f/4 Canon lens. Exposure, 1/100 sec at f/5.6; film, Fuji Reala. Scanned with a Nikon Coolscan V ED with minor adjustments made using Adobe Photoshop CS."
Most of us would never expect artistic beauty from those disposable cameras with the plastic lenses we buy at CVS for last minute special occasions. But that’s exactly what Robert Castagna got out of the students in his photography class he held for guests of the Shattuck Shelter..
Organized by Debbie Farrell Nelson, director of development for Friends of the Shattuck Shelter, the class required students to compose and shoot good photos amidst the chaos of the streets..
Tough the equipment and processing were generously and eagerly donated by Moto Photo of Brookline, the means of these new artists to get their art right were definitely limited..
Apparently, didn’t matter at all. The result of six weeks of instruction and active picture taking was a striking collection of street photos. They captured brief moments of light, color, and movement that any professional would take numerous hours and rolls of film to get right, not to mention a bag full of expensive gadgets..
At a recent exhibition and graduation ceremony at the Shattuck, all the photographers said that, given the right resources, they’re planning on keeping this up. Expect to see more from these guys in upcoming issues.
At the Shattuck Shelter, a local photography class to homeless students. The results contradict stereotypes.
“They weren’t photographing dumpsters,” says Deborah Farrell-Nelson. “They were photographing beautiful landscapes.”
The photographers that Farrell-Nelson refers to are homeless people who benefit from the services at the Shattuck Shelter, a homeless shelter in Jamaica Plain, where Farrell-Nelson is director of development. A number of these photographers recently displayed their photos to an impressed public at a ceremony recognizing their successful completion of a six-week photography course.
It is thanks to Farrell-Nelson, and professional photographer Robert Castagna, that homeless people are learning photography at all.
Interested in witnessing the lives of senior citizens, Castagna had conducted a program called “Through Their Eyes” at the Cambridge senior center, a free photography class for seniors. He wanted to get involved in helping the homeless, and explored other volunteer opportunities at Pine Street Inn, before finally meeting Farrel-Nelson and pitching to her that he wanted to do another free photo class, this time for the homeless.
Castagna, who has a photo portfolio in the Boston Public Library collection, was immediately surprised by his homeless students.
“From the very first class it broke a stereotype for me. It happened instantly,” he explains. “I went in there thinking certain things about homeless people, but these individuals are very similar to you and I.”
His approach was simple. At a shelter meeting, he announced he was offering a photography class free of charge, every Wednesday night, to anyone who might be interested.
At the first class he distributed disposable cameras, and taught the basics of composition and street photography. Students then went out into their neighborhoods and took photos. Proofs were developed and critiqued in later class meetings.
“Initially I had a certain fixed idea about what type of photos they were going to take,” says Castagna. “I expected a lot of photos of other homeless people.”
If his senior citizen photo classes were supposed to reveal the lives of seniors, the new class would surely depict the harrowing realities of life on the street – quite the contrary.
“They took photos like you and I,” Castagna explains. The cityscapes, images of trees, squirrels, and other natural elements were more “works of art” than a testament to social injustices and hardship.
The fact that homeless students were photographing stunning natural scenes rather than images of desperation, confirms, for Farrell-Nelson and Castagna, that many of the stereotypes surrounding the homeless simply aren’t true.
Farrell-Nelson found support for the program at a local photo store – Moto Photo – where owner Peter Mahler agreed to donate the disposable cameras, processing and enlargements that the class would require. Employees at the store became enthralled, according to Farrell-Nelson, by the quality of the photos being taken by the homeless photographers, and waited impatiently each week for a new lot of disposable cameras to be delivered for development.
Though neither Castagna nor Farrell-Nelson claim that the program will solve the problems of its homeless students, the experience was, they think, an extremely positive step.
“Being able to successfully follow something through. To take these classes and stick with it, and have people admire your work, I don’t think that happens often in the lives of these men,” explains Therese Johnson, Shattuck Shelter’s director of transitional development.
Johnson stresses less the practical skills acquired in the class and more the rare sense of accomplishment that the students experienced – a critical change from the substance abuse and mental health issues that some wrestle with on a daily basis. The ability to take a task and complete it, according to Johnson, is an important first step in the transition out of homelessness.
Castagna saw a significant “boost in morale,” for his students. The applause and accolades received at the recent public exhibition, left students excited. One man said it was the greatest day of his life.
Selected photographs were enlarged, matted and framed, and exposed for public viewing. In future years, Castagna hopes to continue the program and do a much larger public exhibition. According to him, some students expressed interest in trying to buy cameras and continue to pursue photography.
“You get the idea that there is no hope,” he comments, but he doesn’t view his students as hopeless, and thinks it’s stereotyping to think that people who live on the street value the world differently.
Farrell-Nelson was one of many shocked by the quality of the photos taken. “Looking through the lens levels the playing field,” she comments.
Cambridge Senior citizens joined forces with the youth of Roxbury’s Above and Beyond school program, to prove that bridging the generation gap is easy, as long as you have a common interest. A photographic workshop, taught and inspired by local photographer Robert W. Castagna was aimed at getting both young and old into communication and working together.
“If there is one thing that people can relate to it’s photography,” said Castagna, a teacher at the Cambridge Citywide Senior Center for the past five years. He feels that a photograph, with its innate ability to stop time and to abstract an aspect of life, is the perfect tool to bring about an understanding of diverse generations and people. “A photograph allows one to step out of the world and to look closely at what has occurred, to reflect on past important events and to see what was really there. By doing this, one can bring about an understanding of diversity.”
An important concept learned in the photographic workshop was the importance of the photographer’s ability to move. “By moving, he or she is able to assume various viewpoints an in effect change the composition of the picture he is taking,” says the instructor. Classic photographs were used to illustrate this concept. One taken from a bird’s eye view capturing a pair of lovers unawares and another shot taken from knee level accentuating the swirling dress of a dancer. Through these examples the students truly got the point. With disposable cameras donated by the photographer, the students immediately got into motion and photographed the streets of Cambridge.
Senior Center member Bernarda Vargas carries a camera in her purse wherever she goes to “capture just the right moment.” The native Colombian is still mesmerized by the streets of Boston even though, she’s lived here for over 40 years. “Black and white photography gives me some kind of serenity, tranquility,” says Vargas.
Ten-year-old Morneh Josiah-Faeduwor thinks similarly. “I like when photos make time frozen,” she said.
For many youngsters from Brookview House in Dorchester, Monday was the first time they were given their own cameras. For many of the participants at the Cambridge Senior Center cameras have been lifelong companions.
When students from both groups were let loose in Central Square the first-time excitement and longtime experience came in handy as they were taught “to write with light,” the literal definition of “photography.”
Bill Smith, a Senior Center member, came to the photography workshop with years of experience. “I’m here to renew my information,” he said as he introduced himself. Smith shared his story of going to Morocco with his local camera club and taking pictures at a market from up above, where no one could see him. “We sat there all day with the colorful clothing and the fruits and the vegetables, and they couldn’t see us.”
Ayesha Butler, 9, was like-minded: “I like to sneak up on people with my camera.”
The seniors and children found common ground on Aug. 4 at the Cambridge Senior Center for an hourlong photography workshop and an hour of hitting the streets with loaded cameras. While the rain kept many seniors inside, the children happily hid under umbrellas, venturing into the rain to get the perfect shot.
“When it comes to taking pictures you have to move,” advised instructor Robert Castagna.
Prancing through puddles and sheltering their heads with their hands, the children posed for each other and laughed as they caught raindrops in their mouths. Spatterings of the word “cheese” echoed along Massachusetts Avenue. A few seniors followed.
“In school we stay in for recess when it rains, not here,” Yahkeema Blair said while huddled under a blue umbrella. The 9-year-old took a photo of the Cambridge Post Office with the American flag. “I went down low,” she said, demonstrating bending her knees.
Tehmoendor Josiah, 12, took the assignment very seriously and wandered off to find the perfect shot while the other youngsters stayed together. “I tried to get away from everybody so I don’t just have pictures of them. For a good picture I learned to look for something different,” he said.
When a man with long wet hair stopped at the post office steps to light a cigarette he was unknowingly surrounded by the Brookview House paparazzi.
Robert Castagna, 35, is a local documentary photographer, who has been volunteering at the Cambridge Senior Center for five years. He invited the children from Dorchester’s Brookview House Above and Beyond summer program to join the seniors for a one-day workshop. The Brookview House serves families that are homeless, in transitional housing or formerly homeless.
“I try to expose them to give them a broader perspective of the world and their community because after moving from place to place they are finally at a place with some consistency,” said Mayumi Brooks, Brookview House youth director. At the end of the workshop Castagna threw disposable cameras across the room for youngsters to catch like prizes. The seniors helped the children open the packages.
Josiah whispered to his friend, “I’m coming to this place when I’m older.”
The Harvard Square Document, a photographic essay on Harvard Square, will be exhibited throughout June.
Its aim is the culture and current times of the square as well as the history, thereby weaving a full picture of how the cultural hub became what it is today. The main exhibition space will be the Holyoke Center, however, a touring map and essay will accompany, leading one to view various pictures that are positioned in store fronts throughout the square. The artistic life of Harvard Square will be showcased and the square itself will be its venue.
The photographer is Robert W. Castagna. Accompanying his photographs will be various pictures from the archives of libraries and historical societies.
“What makes Harvard Square so special?” Castagna writes. “I do hope to shed some light on the subject and open one’s eyes to this diverse and beautiful cultural hub. As a photographer, I am a firm believer in living in the moment. I feel that we are living in tomorrow’s history. So let’s take a closer look and see how it got there:
“Follow the exhibit’s map, and you will find corresponding photographs of the square. The square will not only come alive with both current and historical photographs, but by following along with the text you will get the context in which to place the photographs. A simple evolution should take shape and you should never consider this square the same.”
Participating establishments include the Holyoke Center, the Wrap, Tower Records, Million Year Picnic, WordsWorth, Calliope, Cardullo’s, Tealuxe, Harvard Bookstore and more.
On Saturday, June 22, starting at noon at the Forbes Plaza in Harvard Square, there will be an outdoor music festival featuring more than 10 live performers. Approximate end time is 7 PM.
Participating musicians include: Ksenia Mack, Kevin So, Anna Huckabee Tull, Kelly Riley, Keith Hamptom, John Cate, Filicia Brady, Ester Friedman, Licia Sky, Laurie Geltman, Vanessa Trien, Stefan Zorich and Rachel McCartney.
Forbes Plaza is the space located between Au Bon Pain and Cambridge Trust Bank. The festival is in part sponsored by Harvard Real Estate and Planning.
Master of ceremonies will be Robert W. Castagna, photographer and author of the “Harvard Square Document.”
The musical performances and the accompanying Harvard Square Document are done to celebrate the spirit and aesthetic of Harvard Square.
Jerome Underwood of Roxbury knew right away the pose he wanted to strike for a photography exhibit documenting the household lives of formerly homeless men and women. The 37-year-old recovering crack cocaine addict, clean, he says, for six years, sought to convey his pleasure at tilling the rumpled soil of an abandoned lot next to the Warren Street building in which he lives.
Underwood had his photograph taken while tending his nascent garden, in which he hopes to replace weeds with three tidy flower beds full of tulips and roses. The photo shows him clutching the wooden handle of a shovel and wearing dirt-stained jeans, a dark jacket and a slight grin.
“I really like gardening. It relaxes me and keeps me busy,” said Underwood, who was homeless before moving into permanent affordable housing eight months ago. “I like to work with my hands and to create things. Whatever I touch I try to make look beautiful.”
Underwood and 26 other residents of Paul Sullivan Housing units on Warren and Washington streets posed for Cambridge photographer Robert Castagna last fall at the behest of housing administrator Peg Ireland. Having worked with homeless and mentally ill people for nine years, Ireland said she hopes displaying the photographs around the houses will strengthen the residents’ bond to their homes.
“The photographs are part of my effort to create a home for people who were formerly homeless,” Ireland said. “What you usually see in a home are photographs of people who live in that home. It validates their place in the home to have a photograph they like looking back at them.”
Bereket Tedla, 39, who has lived at Warren Street house for three years, said the intensity of his image in the photograph startled him. “I wasn’t expecting to see the look of such a hard-working man,” said Tedla, a parking lot attendant who wore his uniform of a white, short-sleeved shirt and dark tie for his picture.
The photo project cost roughly $1,000 in prints and processing charges that was funded by the Pine Street Inn, a nonprofit homeless assistance organization that provides affordable housing to 280 men, women and children in the Boston area. Castagna, the photographer, did not charge a fee.
In a Boston cafe hung a series of black-and-white Boston based street photographs by Robert Castagna. A fellow artist was inspired by the images and wrote a poem which was later published in BIGnews. Unfortunately the poet`s name has been forgotten, but her poem lives on. To view the poem visit BIGnews Poetry.
CAMBRIDGE- With their little disposable cameras ready to shoot, the gray-haired photographers stalk their prey like hunters on a safari, searching out likely subjects at public libraries, on the street, in the cemeteries and from the depths of their imaginations.
They capture the images of laughing children and old friends and turn-of-the-century buildings juxtaposed alongside new construction with eyes experienced in seeing the nuances of life, over- for some of them-nearly a century of living it.
While the images they recorded in their mind’s eye over the years cannot be hung on walls for others to admire and learn from, what they now capture on camera can be seen at exhibitions at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 12 Brattle St., through Aug. 2 and at the Cambridge Community Television Drive-by Gallery at 675 Massachusetts Ave. from Aug. 2 through Sept. 3.
Earlier, the 19 photographs taken by the 11 members of a photography class at the Cambridge Citywide Senior Center at 906 Massachusetts Ave. were exhibited at Cambridge City Hall following an opening reception at the center in July.
The exhibition, titled, “Through Their Eyes,” is the work of a photography class taught for the third year by Cambridge photographer Robert W. Castagna, 33, for people over 60.
Staff at the center say the class has sparked an interest in photography among seniors that has become contagious and made it a popular choice among those who go to the multiservice center for a variety of free classes, including ballroom dancing. Some of Castagna’s pupils have taken his class every year.
“I just loved it and can’t wait to get back to class,” said 82-year-old Sylvia Bridgeman, of Cambridge, who has taken Castagna’s 10-week Saturday morning course with her two sisters for several years. “Robert taught me how to take pictures of people without cutting off their heads,” she said.
Bridgeman’s exhibit photograph is of First Baptist Church in Central Square, taken while she stood in the traffic island on Massachusetts Avenue. She did not cut off the tip of the steeple.
Bridgeman’s two sisters, Tiny James, (she is 5 feet 2 inches) 81, and Ilene Headley, 75, both of Cambridge, also have photographs in the exhibit. Headley’s shows two bus drivers and James’s shows a dog in the passenger seat of a car.
“It was parked outside the center and the dog was just sitting there in a pose that seemed to say,’ Take my picture, please,’” James said. She titled the photo, “How Much is that Doggy in the Window?”
James said that though she had worked in the mold room of Polaroid Corp. before retiring at 62 and had taken a lot of family photos while growing up, she still had a lot to learn about photography.
“There were 10 kids in our family,” James said, “so we took a lot of pictures. Some were good. Some weren’t. Robert showed me how to focus on people so at least you get the whole body.” She’s already signed up again for Castagna’s class next year.
The class suits the center’s goal, according to Emma Watkins, its director. “We want to provide programs and classes that will enrich the lives of seniors,” she said last week. “When Robert wanted to do this, I was so happy, I wanted to jump up and down.
“We all need to be life-long learners and Robert’s class fits in perfectly with that. The amazing thing about Robert is that he volunteers his time and the seniors who come to his Saturday classes have so much energy and enthusiasm.
“They go off with their cameras on field trips to places like Harvard Square, the Boston Common, the USS Constitution and Walden Pond. I see a lot of budding friendships going on among them and a lot of learning going on,” she said.
Castagna was graduated in 1997 from New York Institute of Photography and earned a certificate in education in 1996 from the Academy of the Church of Scientology in Boston.
He was so enthusiastic about the senior center project, Watkins said, that he taught the first two years without a fee and only in the third year received a minimal payment from a $3,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Cambridge Arts Council.
The grant also covers items like photo development and framing, costs that earlier were picked up by the center. The center, part of the city’s Department of Human Services, also provides a van to shuttle seniors on field trips to photo shoots.
In interviews, the seniors said that while most of them had taken family and vacation photographs over the years, Castagna has taught them to look at subjects with a photographer’s eye for content and composition.
Most of them use point-and-shoot cameras, more and more of them disposable models, and some of them come to class with more sophisticated models with telephoto lenses.
Castagna says he learns as much from the seniors as they do from him. “They bring a special dimension to what they see,” he said, “and their experiences show in what they shoot.”
Joseph Galvin, 65, a retired labor market analyst of Watertown, is proof of that. Instead of photographing a man in colonial garb holding a Vermont state flag upright during a class visit to the Charlestown Naval Yard, Galvin had the man hold the staff parallel to the shadow of a tree branch, resulting in a unique photography.
Galvin said he signed up for the class “because I had heard so much about it and about Robert from other people. He took us on field trips, gave us advice and helped us see things differently ad, then, he critiqued our photos.”
Lillian Hensley, 89, of Cambridge said she “takes pictures all the time of my grandchildren,” but never really appreciated what her camera could do until she took the class. “I like to do candids, not posed subjects,” she said, explaining her exhibit photograph of laughing children walking to school. She also enjoyed a field trip to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, adding, “I never thought a cemetery could be so beautiful.”
"Lillian has a great eye,” Castagna said. “She just walks up to people and takes their picture.”
At the end of the 10-week session, Castagna and his assistant, Alice Donaldson, a West Roxbury photographer, helped the seniors mat and frame their photographs for showing. “The exhibit is a successful component of the class,” Castagna said. “To have a real product in the end really means something to them.”
As Watkins, the senior center director sees it, the budding photographers are proof that there is no age limit to learning. Sylvia Bridgeman agrees with that. “It’s never too late to learn something new,” she said. “There’s no sense to sitting at home in a rocking chair.”
Perhaps the best use of any education is in passing the knowledge you gain along to others, and igniting their curiosity. There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of infusing other people with your own passion for a subject, whether it’s geology or poetry or photography.
By teaching a class tailored to older adults who want to learn the basics of photography, Robert Castagna not only shares his enthusiasm with others, but he also experiences the satisfaction of seeing others express their creativity.
“It was an idea I had one day while driving through Cambridge with my wife. I thought how it would be great to see Cambridge through the eyes of seniors who had lived and worked here for some years. How they could add a certain perspective and experience that not just any photographer could capture,” he said.
The program is appropriately titled Through Their Eyes, because the focus is on helping students photograph the world from their own unique perspective. It runs for three months every spring.
Once he came up with the idea for the course, Castagna still had to get the confidence to put his idea into action. “At first such an undertaking can be a bit daunting, putting yourself on the line; it’s a true test of your ability as a photographer and teacher. By doing the NYI professional photography program I felt the confidence to overcome any doubts about my ability. And once I started it was just fine.”
Now that he’s completed his third year of teaching, Castagna has found that he enjoys teaching almost as much as he enjoys doing photography.
What he enjoys most about the course is the sheer appreciation the students show. At the opening reception, when their work is displayed, the seniors receive a certificate and many of them bring family and friends to the event.
“The seniors themselves love the class and they become so proud to see their work on display. So I guess it’s the feeling of accomplishment that I personally fee as well as the accomplishment I see the seniors feel.”
Until the course begins again next spring, Castagna will be doing a portrait project of homeless people who participate in the Pine Street Inn, the area’s largest homeless shelter, and he’s photographing Harvard Square, “a local hub of artistic and cultural activity and I’m capturing it on black and white film.”
But his main interest is in “cultural photography and taking pictures in the streets and squares of the city,” he said.
Castagna’s current project is called Store Windows. “This involves night photographs of brightly lit store fronts taken with my medium format camera and tripod on high saturation color film. Once the final photos are chosen they will be enlarged to a very large size and put on display.”
Castagna has had solo exhibitions at the Boston Public Library and the Hynes Convention Center, and his work was recently on display at the Danforth Museum of Art. He will have photos in the Best of Photography Annual 2001 put out by Photographer’s Forum magazine.
Photographer Robert Castagna is helping seniors here record the Massachusetts of their minds’ eyes.
For the past three years, Castagna has served as a volunteer photography teacher at the Cambridge Senior Center. His eight-week course, which begins in mid-April, meets every Saturday morning to go out and take pictures. His students are senior citizens of various skill levels and experience. All the students share an interest in photography as an art form. Castagna offers them only a few basic lessons in camera technique, he said. He emphasized that his instruction focuses on looking for good pictures.
Castagna is a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography and a Hubbard Graduate of Study Technology. His original plan for the Senior Center class was to see what the senior residents of Cambridge would be interested in capturing on film. He calls the program “Through Their Eyes” because he believes the name best describes his original interest.
Throughout this past spring, the students worked toward a common goal of producing an exhibit of photographs representing their best work. That show opened June 19, at the Cambridge Senior Center. Castagna’s near-dozen students were excited with their work and with the opportunity to dabble both in black-and-white and color photography, the teacher said. The students shot all of the pictures themselves; Castagna developed the film. Before the exhibit, the senior-citizen students learned to mat and frame their favorite pieces.
Claudette Lecomte, one of Castagna’s students, said she enjoyed taking portraits the most – and her grandchildren were her favorite subjects. Another student, Sylvia Bridgeman, said landscape shots were her best work. She offered a beautiful picture of the First Baptist Church in Cambridge.
As well as shooting locally, the class took four field trips to photograph the great outdoors. These trips included jaunts to Concord, Bunker Hill, the U.S.S. Constitution and Copley Square. The senior students said lines, composition and light are the essential elements of great photographs.
The class has been enormously successful, gaining in popularity every year. Castagna said several people up to take his class next spring, after viewing the seniors’ work – now on display at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. After that month-long display, the exhibit will move to the Drive-By Gallery at the Cambridge Community Cable Television, on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue. and Prospect St., in Central Square.
Castagna said the experience was rewarding the classes were fun. He saw great improvement in the work of all of his students in the past few months that they have worked together. This year, Castagna received a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council to help with the cost of supplies. He hopes this support for photography will continue, so people will have more art by which to remember the era.
Those elders you may have seen snapping photographs around Central and Harvard squares recently plan to exhibit their works at the Cambridge Senior Center at 10 a.m. next Saturday.
The theme is “Through their Eyes,” and those participating in the eight-week course at the center trained their lens on the city and the people who live there.
“I’ve never seen seniors get so energized,” said Emma Watkins, center director. “We have some people who never had a sparkle in their eyes really light up. Their focus was on things important to them, to see Cambridge through their eyes.”
The idea for the course came from the instructor, Robert W. Castagna, a Cambridge resident and photographer.
“We are talking about people who have lived here for 60 years,” Castagna said, adding he was impressed with the quality of work, “Some were already pretty good; others just had the potential.”
The 14 works on display will include pictures of family members, a panoramic shot of a black-and-white mural off an alley in Central Square, and a local street sign named for the mother of one senior shutterbug who has 30 great-grandchildren.
The exhibit is to remain at the center for one week and then goes to City Hall Jan. 3-17 and then to other area locales.