Harold Kurzman
My career began in the State Department, African Bureau. I traveled to many countries and lived in Zimbabwe and Malawi. A marvelous opportunity to photograph the beauty of the safari parks’ animals and the diversity of natural scenery: deserts, savanna, mountains, rivers and forests. Leaving Government, I worked for private consulting firms, largely in international business. For the rest of my employment I was constantly traveling world-wide, and living overseas in Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, the Philippines, Cameroon, and Uganda. Travel photography was a natural obsession, with the advantage that I could pick and choose time and place. Most images were made with a Leica and a Rolliflex on transparencies and viewed as projected slides.
My retirement and move to Naples, FL in 2005 coincided with my transition to digital imaging, first with Sony and Minolta/Konica fixed lens cameras, and then to Cannon SLR with several lenses, offering me a focal range of 18mm-300mm. I began using digital imaging software, which gives enormous flexibility, creative opportunities and some allowance for correction of errors. I joined a fantastic, Naples based, camera club, DPI-SIG. I volunteered to be the Club Competition Director, which gave me an appreciation for the qualities which make an image a winner, and I began my participation in both Club and Florida state-wide competitions. The Club offers wonderful learning experiences as well as participation in many workshops, photo shoot outings and gallery exhibitions. In Florida I have shown my work at the Marco Island Center for the Arts; the Broadway Palm Theater and Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, Ft Myers; at two Collier County libraries; the Club at Sterling Oaks; the Von Liebig Art Center, Naples; the Center for the Arts and the Shangri-La Springs, Bonita Springs; the COOP Art Gallery, Coconut Point, Estero; and First Presbyterian Church, Bonita Springs. My photos have appeared in SW Spotlight, Naples Daily News, Collier Citizen, the Banner and the DPI-Sig Club magazine. My images have won awards in Florida State camera club competitions and have been juried into four consecutive CAMERA-USA national shows. |
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