By Kevin Coughlin
Allie Lott is not likely to forget her 21st birthday.
The Morristown High School graduate was serenaded on Friday by art patrons who packed the 70 South gallery to scope out her first photo exhibit.
“It’s surreal, and wonderful. I had to pinch myself a couple times,” said Lott, whose works are featured alongside those of gallery staff members in a show called All Together Now.
It runs for the next few weeks and showcases the diverse talents of gallery Director Ira L. Black, Marketing Manager Christina Branco, Curator Gina Cerbone, Operations Manager Myles Sandrian, Production Manager Evan Kaminsky, and Sales Associates Barbara Fowler and William Laviano.
Casper Dehnavi, a Harvard-bound senior from Glen Ridge High School, also gets some wall space.
Black and gallery owner Ted Baldanzi hope that highlighting employees’ meticulous attention to their own work will encourage the public to entrust treasured photos to them for printing and framing.
Lott and Dehnavi, meanwhile, underscore the gallery’s commitment to promoting young talent. Lott, now a junior studying film and visual arts at Ithaca College, hails from a Morristown High broadcasting program that has received substantial support from Baldanzi, a retired software entrepreneur who transformed Sandrian Camera into 70 South just over a year ago.
Baldanzi shuns the spotlight; the gallery owner steadfastly resisted employees’ entreaties to include his own photos in the exhibition. He was a bit under the weather and did not attend Friday’s reception.
Lott’s series stems from a college assignment. The student’s photos were inspired by one of her favorite websites, PostSecret.com, which shares secrets sent by anonymous readers.
“It struck me how similar some of them felt to what I felt, the shared ideas and shared feelings,” Lott said. “I wanted to give visual representations of it. It’s one thing to see it in writing. But to see it in a visual environment is something different.”
MORE ABOUT THE 70 SOUTH GALLERY
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