LEAH ABRAHAMS

Leah Abrahams

Artist Biography: I’ve been a member of TBZ for 5 years and resident of Chestnut Hill/Brookline for six years. I’ve been doing photography for the last 20 years (on the side) as I have a business helping people write their family histories/memoirs. I've been fortunate to get recognition for my work and have had several one-woman shows. Don’t ask me what my special focus is—I shoot a subject if I like it and then see where it leads. I have also ventured from 2-D to 3-D at times.

Artist Statement: Joel Meyerowitz, a famous street photographer whose workshop I had the great good fortune attend, says, “Once you have a camera in your hand, you have a license to see.” That’s what happened to me when I impulsively bought a used camera to preserve memories of a trip I was about to take to visit my daughter who was studying in Italy. I began to see the world differently. At first, I only shot landscapes and objects. Later, I became entranced with the vitality of people I met in Russia on a visit to my relatives there. I tried to capture their expressive faces. At times I have produced 3-D art like the Torah cover (call Tik in Hebrew), or a spice box for Havdalah. But mostly I’m drawn to details of the mundane or abstractions—like tar on the street used to fix cracks; I currently have an exhibition of those random tar “hieroglyphics” (I call them “Alien Messages”) in the business offices of The Street in Newton. I’m not sure what I’ll turn to next, but capturing the movement of children at play—the blur of activity produces a picture of energy. It’s a challenge I’ve given myself to trick the camera into showing the passage of time. Stay tuned!