By Kevin Coughlin
Since opening in Morristown just over a year ago, the 70 South Gallery has exhibited works by many outstanding photographers.
But the show that opens on Feb. 6, 2016, adds a personal touch.
All Together Now will feature photos by the gallery’s staff.
The roster includes Ira L. Black, gallery director; Christina Branco, marketing and design manager; Gina Cerbone, gallery curator; Barbara Fowler, sales associate; Evan Kaminsky, production manager; William Laviano, print and sales associate; Allie Lott, gallery associate, and Myles Sandrian, operations manager.
All have a keen eye. The same may be said of Casper Dehnavi, a Harvard-bound senior at Glen Ridge High School who is taking an intensive yearlong program at the International Center for Photography. Every 70 South exhibition showcases a student, and she’s got the spotlight this time.
The theme is the brainchild of gallery owner Ted Baldanzi, a fervent believer in the medium’s power to span generations and connect families.
By showing off the talents and meticulous attention to detail of his extended gallery family, he said, he hopes to convey to customers what they can expect when they bring their own treasured images to 70 South for printing and framing.
“I thought it was important to show these are the people taking other people’s memories, and treating them as they should be treated,” said Baldanzi, a shutterbug himself.
“We look through every photo that goes through here. Nothing is automatic. If colors need correction, we correct them. If they need to be a little darker, we make them darker,” said the owner, who retained most of the staff from Sandrian Camera, a local institution for 87 years that he transformed into 70 South.
Ira Black, who has photographed the Dalai Lama and David Beckham, among other celebrities, said the gallery can print on virtually any surface — acrylic, canvas, metal — in almost any size. Staffers also can digitize slides and VHS tapes for customers.
The gallery itself has emerged as a star, too, thanks to its clean lines, warm hardwood floor and professional portrait studio. It has hosted receptions for the Morristown Festival of Books and the Mayo Performing Arts Center, along with a free meet-the-artists series, The Informal Lens, moderated by Black.
Coming soon is Photo U.: How-to workshops on camera basics, iPhone photography and travel pictures.
But photo preservation seems nearest and dearest to Baldanzi, who retired five years ago after selling Datacor, his Florham Park software company that served the chemical industry.
“I don’t think people take it seriously enough,” he said of family snapshots. “I have pictures of my grandparents at the turn of the century. They’re important to me, and I’ll pass them on to my grandchildren.”
While smartphones are convenient and take great shots, their output largely is invisible and disposable, Baldanzi said.
“You take thousands of pictures on your phone, and you’ll never see them again. If you don’t take a couple and print them for the future, they’re gone. The technology will change and you won’t see them, your children won’t see them, your grandchildren won’t see them.”
One of his joys as a gallery owner, Baldanzi said, is watching the expression on faces of student photographers the first time they see large, high-quality prints of their work at 70 South.
He and his staff said they strive to create that same reaction in every customer they serve.
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