New York Folklore Society's Resources: People

A Who’s Who of Our Universe—From our vantage point at the New York Folklore Society in central New York, here is a broad but incomplete view of major features of our universe. You can get to some of the stars right now at the speed of light with a click on a link. Others will take more work—e-mail, mail, phone, fax. For some we have fairly complete information, for others just a name. But this universe will get fuller and richer over time, so come back often.

New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org

PEOPLE
Colleagues of NYFS

Photographers

Martha Cooper is a superb photographer who has worked extensively with folklorists documenting traditional arts and folklife throughout New York State. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Folklore Newsletter and has conducted photography workshops for folklorists through our Mentoring Program. She was the first photographer to document break dancing in the press and has immersed herself in the urban folklife, life on the streets, of New York. In a 1992 interview in our newsletter she said, "In a sense, I just take good snapshots—and that’s why my style works best with folklore. I don’t want to try and make my pictures artistic. I am more interested in capturing the subject matter.... My strength lies, I think, in ferreting out unusual thingsto shoot and recognizing unannounced trends just by being out on the street with my eyes open."

E-mail : kodakgirl@rcn.com
Phone: ( 212) 222-5146

Audrey Gottlieb, documentary photographer, lives in Flushing, Queens, where since 1985 she has been documenting urban immigrant communities, focusing on new people in old neighborhoods and their efforts to retain their cultures far from their places of origin. Fascinated by ritual and tradition, this visual storyteller delights in depicting the colorful swirl of multicultural America right here in New York State 100 years after the last great wave of immigration. Whether it is a Hindu elephant god procession along Main Street, a diner selling Queensburgers, an Afghan call to prayer under the Van Wyck Expressway or Spanish ladies wearing mantillas in a pizza parlor booth, she enjoys capturing the moment.

Audrey has received three Individual Artist grants from NYSCA through Queens Council on the Arts in 1991, 1993, and 1997 to create work related to her ongoing "Cosmopolitan Queens" series in color. Several of her photos were included in a major traveling exhibition chronicling the history of American immigration titled "Points of Entry: A Nation of Strangers".

Born in Allenwood, New Jersey, Audrey graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in French and later studied photography at the School of Visual Arts and International Centre of Photography, New York City. She worked as a photographer and media liaison for the United Nations in Somalia, Cyprus and New York. Her work has appeared in print and electronic media for the past 20 years.

Phone: (718) 886-8410

Hazel Hankin is a freelance documentary photographer and teacher based in New York City. Her work is used by book publishers, magazines and newspapers, foundations, social service organizations, and corporations, as well as being seen in galleries and museums.

She has a special interest in subjects of interest to folklorists and has worked over the years on book projects about ethnic groups in American and various cultural topics for City Lore and the Queens Council on the Arts. She is currently producing a series of photographs on social dancing and dance music as well as continuing a long-term project on contemporary life in Cuba.

Hazel's archive of photographs is available as a resource, and she is always looking for interesting folklore projects to shoot. She would like to hear from you about what you’re doing.

E-Mail : hazelhankin@earthlink.net
Phone: 718-832-2111
Website: http://www.hazelhankin.com

Harry Wirtz holds a BA in English with an Art minor from SUNY Albany. An early user of graphic arts publishing software, he has worked and consulted on a variety of publications ranging from cookbooks to pharmaceuticals. His photographic subjects include folk and rock musicians, historic architecture, artists’ slide portfolios, and small products. He lives and works in the rural southern Adirondacks.

E-mail : harryw@capital.net
Phone: (518) 863-8636
Website: http://www.harrywirtz.com