By Peggy Caroll
Barry Hollritt, by his own admission, is a wanderer, a modern day nomad.
He has traveled a good part of the world as a flight attendant. He has lived in England and in Ohio as well as New Jersey But wherever his home base is, it is merely that. A base.
He drives from Maine to Florida and back – with side trips to the Mid-West. He figures he drives some 30,000 miles a year.
And very often, on his trips, something will catch his eye, he will stop his car and turn to his constant traveling companion: His camera.
“I drove home from Akron, Ohio, this week,” he said. “And I stopped three times to take pictures.”
He has taken photos of landscapes, seascapes, horses, dogs and cats, and birds – particularly the trumpet swan – and jazz groups. He works in color, sepia and black and white – whatever seems to best reflect the subject – from the first World Trade Center to a portrait of an Austrian horse.
This weekend, after an eight-year hiatus, he will bring his work back to the Morristown CraftMarket, the annual arts and crafts show sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Randolph Township. The event opens Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, at the Morristown National Guard Armory and continues through Sunday, Oct. 16.
Hollritt is among the 150 artists from 25 states who will show original and one-of-a-kind works in a variety of media and styles, from jewelry and leather goods to glass and ceramics. And yes, photography.
His 10-by-10-foot booth will display some two dozen of his pictures. Examples of his art photography include a photo of the Morristown Green and an iconic World Trade Center image he took before 9/11.
STARTING WITH A BROWNIE
Hollritt is New Jersey-bred, born in Paterson.
His first experience with a camera was here. His parents allowed him to use a box Kodak Brownie to take pictures during visits to the Jersey shore. He bought his first camera as a student at Passaic Valley High School.
At the time, his intent was to study literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, which he did. But while reading Yeats and Shakespeare during a semester abroad, at FDU’s Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, England, he reached for the camera again.
“It was the English light, “ he recalls. He wanted to capture it.
He sold his first pictures of the English countryside in 1974.
And while he earned his degree in literature, photography had become his passion.
His first job after college was with a now defunct international charter airline, where he both worked as an attendant and trained others. The job took him all over North America, the Middle East and Europe. Always with him was his 35mm Topcon camera. He began amassing a portfolio of faces and places.
Everywhere he landed, he looked about him. During layovers, he said, he wandered – as always – to the landscapes and the seascapes of the country he was in.
“A good photographer must be ready for that one instant when the perfect image may present itself,” he said. “Being there is half the battle; the other half is to be prepared.”
It was a job he held for seven years. The came a year of additional training: Studying photographic science at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Later, he was marketing and business development manager for Toshiba America for 13 years. A corporate manager by day, he became a landscape, waterfowl, and nature photographer on nights and weekends.
If William Carlos Williams could be both a doctor and a poet, he figured, he could be a business executive and an art photographer.
In 1981, he took a photograph which would prove to be far more meaningful than it seemed at the time.
“In September 1981, I spent a few hours at the base of the World Trade Center, keying in on the majestic pillars,” he said in a statement for the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. “I was using a normal lens (not a wide angle lens) in an attempt to keep the image distortion-free, since I was not interested in creating a surreal image.
“The scene was photographed in black and white so that the lamp and towers basically blended together. Today, this image remains as powerful as it did the day it was exposed, and what I attempted to do that day now seems more relevant than I ever imagined.”
The photograph is in the Museum’s collection.
In 1988, he started exhibiting his work at local art shows and began receiving recognition and awards for his landscape and nature photographs. His first exhibit that year achieved a first-place ribbon for one image entitled Aircraft over the Alps, an image he refers to as an “airscape” that still is exhibited today.
IMAGES OF SWANS
Several years later, he began to photograph swans, now one of his trademarks. Following in the tradition of Peter Scott, the naturalist and waterfowl painter, he concentrates on capturing images that go beyond the realm of photographs and approach what he refers to as “photographic artwork.”
He is a lifetime member of the Trumpeter Swan Society and supports wildlife preservation efforts.
Along his nomadic travels, he has collected a number of awards.
In 2000, his Peacock, received Best in Show at the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, MD.
In May 2002, Golden Doorway received Honorable Mention in the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts “Images 2002” gallery exhibition in State College, PA. In September 2002, Barry received awards for both Nurturing the Newborn and Anglers in the Mist at the well-known “Wings n’ Water” wildlife exhibition in Stone Harbor.
In 2003, he received the Best in Show award for Anglers in the Mist at two Art and Wildlife shows, the third annual Chester Fine Art Show in northern New Jersey, and the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, MD. Nurturing the Newborn won Best in Show in Professional Photography in May 2004 at the prestigious Somerset County Carving and Wildlife show in Basking Ridge.
He began his business – traveling to art shows all along the Eastern seaboard– in 2002.
Hollritt moved to Cincinnati in 2006, and returned to his home state a year and a half ago, settling in Morristown, a place where he is comfortable and close to relatives and old friends.
He continues to follow his passion of bird and travel photography, using both vintage 2 1/4 medium format cameras and state of the art digital gear. He has, however, added an extra touch. Five years ago, he began to write inspirational verses around the photographs.
All that study of Yeats and Shakespeare has not gone to waste.
A coupon for $2 off the $10 admission price is available at MorristownCraftMarket.org. The CraftMarket begins with an opening night reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday. It will continue on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The armory is at 430 Western Ave. in Morris Township. Parking is free.
