PHOTOGRAPHS & WATERCOLORS BY HARVEY MENDELSON

 

HARVEY MENDELSON

I am a native of New York City. I moved to the New York Capital District area in 1958 after I was offered an engineering position with GE. While at  GE, I completed requirements for a PhD degree from RPI.

I became interested in photography on a casual basis in my late teens. It became a serious hobby in my mid thirties when I acquired a 35mm single lens reflex and set up a dark room to process my films. However, I found photography somewhat limiting as an expressive medium and disliked the isolation of darkroom work. As a result, after retiring, I began experimenting with watercolor painting which allowed me greater freedom of expression. I became active in the local art community becoming president of the Schenectady Art Society. Although my paintings have been shown in numerous individual and group exhibits and have won many awards, the advent of digital photography, and the development of archival ink jet printers, changed the way that I could  manipulate my images to express my vision. I was seduced by Photoshop and, in addition to painting with watercolors, I can now paint with pixels. Photoshop now supplements my painting and is a nice blend  of art and technology which appeals to my engineering background. As with my watercolors, my objective is not to alter reality but merely to express the beauty of the subject as I see it.

In addition to exhibiting in many shows, my photo credits include my food photography for the highly acclaimed and award winning "Divine Kosher Cuisine" cook book ( www.divinekosher.com ). I also teaches photography at the Schenectady JCC Adult Education Program. I can be contacted at arharmendelson@gmail.com