Custom House Exhibit: Camera Paintings Of Home April 4-18

Chestertown, MD, April 8, 2003 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society presents “SENSE OF PLACE: CAMERA PAINTINGS OF HOME,” a photography exhibit by artist Penny Knobel-Besa, at the Custom House, 101 S. Water Street, Chestertown. The exhibit is free and open to the public daily Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., April 4 to April 18. A closing reception will be held Friday, April 18 at 4 p.m.
Knobel-Besa is a freelance photojournalist, playwright, and director. In 1991 she was named Maryland Photographer of the Year. Her photos often appear in the national award-winning literary magazine, The Antietam Review. She has been a press photographer for the Cumberland Theatre, and her photos regularly appear in the Cumberland (Maryland) Times-News. From 1994 until 1998 she worked as a playwright-director producing a children's musical and establishing a theatre arts academy. She also has written and filmed several short independent films. Since May 1998, she has focused on photography, pursuing projects as diverse as an 18,000-mile road trip across North America to shooting social commentary photos in Vienna, Austria. One specialty that Knobel-Besa has developed is shooting photographs that look like paintings, the subject of the exhibit “SENSE OF PLACE: CAMERA PAINTINGS OF HOME.”
“I shoot candid shots with fast film, rarely use a tripod, and sometimes shoot from a moving vehicle,” she said. “A consistent comment is, ‘These look like paintings,' yet none of the photos are computer enhanced or manipulated in any way. I don't use filters. Rather, I look for those natural effects of light. Photography is all about catching the light in a dynamic way.”
Her recent solo exhibitions include the Maryland Ornithological Society at Wisp Resort, the Cumberland Theatre Arts Lobby, and St. Paul in Lavantial, Austria.
To learn more about events and programs sponsored by the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7151.