Jun 17, 2013 | Blog
The images in my portfolio, Red Hook Stories, 1980-1992, are now officially a part of the Red Hook Archive at Kentler Gallery in my old Brooklyn neighborhood. Florence Neal, a long time resident of the Hook opened the first gallery on Van Brunt Street in the mid-eighties. She has since amassed an impressive collection of photographs, new and historical, paintings, maps, newspapers, historical documents and more; some are available for viewing only and some are for sale. I am honored to be a part of this archive and eventually a full set of the Red Hook Stories portfolio will be available from the Kentler in an edition of 25. Take a look at the portfolio here on my site. Several of the images are available now at the Gallery. The Red Hook Archive official site is: http://www.kentlergallery.org/pages/redhook.html
And don’t forget while there to take a look at Red Hook Stories, stories from the neighborhood by the writer Maureen McNeil illustrated with my photographs. This book was published in 2008 and is available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Red-Hook-Stories-Maureen-McNeil/dp/1436303850 And while the printing quality is poor, the contents are definitely not. Maureen’s stories are lyrical and romantic in the face of squalor and despair. The characters intertwine to create a whole picture of the neighborhood in that moment in time. I hope the photographs do the same. In the eighties, Maureen and I were pals, living a block away from each other for almost a decade. Renovating houses and having babies, we walked around and around the neighborhood many afternoons with dogs, kids and my camera. Look for a newly published version of this book soon which will have much better quality photographs, layout and design. In the meantime, go to the Kentler site again, http://www.kentlergallery.org/pages/archives/4_12_08.htm and take a look at the opening at Kentler for book and the portfolio. It was great to be back in the neighborhood.
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Apr 3, 2013 | Blog
Since I am working this week on my Mother’s 90th birthday book, thought I would add a link to my Father’s 90th birthday book which I made 3 1/2 years ago for him. This is a blurb.com book and can be found on their website at http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/1083784-photographs-of-duane-neuhauser. The photograph on the front cover is one of my all time favorite photographs of my Dad, even at two, he was wearing a hat. The book contains over 160 photographs of him from the earliest baby photographs to the age of 90. It is a wonderful gift to have both parents live to this ripe old age and to sit with them as they look through the old photographs. I think this is one of the reasons that I have been in love with photography since an early age: a rich family history of images makes all the difference.
I remember his birthday party as if it were yesterday. At one point I was dancing with him, the disco light was spinning (he wanted a disco light and I am so glad we had it) and I thought it was the perfect moment. I was worried because the book had just come out and I was projecting all of the images from the book at the party. I was worried because the book contained some images of him dressed in women’s clothing which he liked to do. I gave him the book and said I hope you don’t mind me projecting all the images that are contained in it. He said the most wonderful to me. He said, “I am not ashamed of anything I have done so far in my life. Feel free to project away and if people are offended they should not be here.” Click on the link above to see the enire book. it is so worth looking at. 
Apr 3, 2013 | Blog
I am working on a blurb book this week for my Mother who turns 90 in May. It is a book of photographs of only her and all about her. This book is not a eulogy; she is not dead but very much alive. She has always hated to have her picture taken and the only time anyone could get a good one is when she was unaware of the photographer. I have been searching far and wide for photographs of her. There seem to be whole periods of her life when she was not photographed. My Father turned 90 three and a half years ago, and I did a book for him. It was amazing how many images were made of him; he loved to be photographed and his mother, Bertha Neuhauser was a serious amateur photographer. I had too many photographs of Dad to fit in a 160 page book. On the other hand, my Mother was the daughter of an itinerant logger in Western Washington. The family moved each year (sometimes twice a year) and did not seem to place that much importance on pictures of themselves. Still the book will be a story of a life well-lived, and after she met my father, it looks like a life with someone with whom she was in love. Who could ask for more? The photographs featured here are from the first page of the book: thumbnails of her grandparents, parents, siblings, her wedding day, then pregnant with her fourth child (that would be me), reading to the other three. Here’s to my Mother and to blurb.com (and other self publishing programs) who give us an easy way to organize and edit family photographs. Please go to blurb and take a look at the book: https://www.blurb.com/b/4238956-photographs-of-helen-neuhauser
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Mar 13, 2013 | Blog
Today when I got to work at Bainbridge High School, I found the pinhole camera the students and I had put out on 12.21.2012 intending to leave it up until 6.21.2013, solstice to solstice. At some point, the camera fell off the wall. The tape and metal were both wet, the pinhole rusty and face up in the newly mowed grass. I could feel water sloshing inside. But scanned! The 81 day exposure revealed a vast trail of the sun rising and setting, forming an ever larger arc across the sky, incredibly beautiful. I am positive that vivid sun trail did not exist in reality, that such brilliant light was not visible to me as I went to work five days a week for those 81 days. Tomorrow, we hang up another camera in the same spot and hope it makes it to the solstice. Here are a couple more long exposures and the featured image is our first very long exposure, the one I talked about.
The first image is by Maggie Miller, the second image by Nicole Mingo.
Mar 11, 2013 | Blog
I made this pinhole image from the 30th floor high above Michigan Avenue this last weekend in Chicago. It is only a four day exposure but snow had fallen and the sun was out in the cold bright air. Perfect weather for long pinhole exposures. I went to Chicago to attend the 50th Society for Photographic Education Conference, where about 1500 educators from around the country gathered. It was inspiring and fun and I am extremely tired. One of my favorite parts (not counting hearing Martin Parr and Elaine Mayes speak), was seeing the work of several hundred of the participants during the Friday night curator walk through. I loved showing the Pinhole Project to many people that night. The next day, I spoke with the Ilford representative, (straight from England) who gave me some interesting possible explanations concerning the color shifts that we have been getting in the exposures.
