Jim Gambaro, 75, of Belchertown says he’s been doing photography for as long as he can remember — starting as a kid with his Kodak Duoflex.
“It looked like those expensive twin-lens Rollei’s that camera people in the movies carried,” he recalls.
Through various career changes, including a stint as a press photographer in New Jersey, Gambaro says, “Photography remained a wet, smelly, tedious black-and-white darkroom adventure, breaking into glorious color only through good old Ektachrome, midwived by various lab technicians.”
Then, in 2001, he discovered digital photography: “Finally, complete control of an image from capture to display was entirely, for better or worse, in my own hopeful hands.”
Hampshire Life: Describe the work you are doing now.
Jim Gambaro: My work is grounded in traditional image-making. A college prof once tsk-tsked that my work was too “literary” (I had subjects and titles for my paintings!).
H.L.: What is your creative process?
J.G.: It starts with seeing something that excites my eye, then capturing it in camera effectively. I focus often on a small part of a larger scene, a relationship, a shape, a patch of light or color, working always for a solid, well-composed, interesting (to me) image. On the computer, I feel as much a painter as a photographer, even like a sculptor, as I work to explore all its nooks and crannies, to expose any treasure of color or light or texture it may contain. Like any happy, well-adjusted painter, I feel free to have fun with an image, to move at times to greater levels of abstraction, to let my joy of discovery show vividly in the final rendering.
H.L.: Does it start with a “Eureka!”moment?
J.G.: No. My process is largely intuitive. It usually starts when I open a folder of images looking for one to catch my eye. Other times, an image comes banging on the front door: “Look at me!”
H.L.: How do you know you’re on the right track?
J.G.: There is no “right track” for perfecting an image. There are only alternatives, and many could, and often do, lead to what I call a successful end. That’s the fun part of this creative venture. Like a poem, most of my prints are forever works in process.
H.L.: What do you do when you get stuck?
J.G.: Getting stuck is part of the process. In my quantum mental universe, there are always alternate realities (or un-realities, given how far some of my images stray from the original captures).
H.L.: How do you know when the work is done?
J.G.: A cliché perhaps, but any image I produce is fair game for being revisited as my technique and computer skills develop.
H.L.: What did you do today that relates to your art?
J.G.: I took down one large exhibit at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and started re-sorting the work for a group show going up in May. It’s important for me as an artist to complete my creative cycle, to get my “children” out of their boxes and in front of interested eyes
H.L.: Are you having fun with your art?
J.G.: I’m having more fun than should be legal.
— Kathleen Mellen
Jim Gambaro will exhibit his photographs through June 17 in “Connections and Disconnections” at Valley Photo Center, 1500 Main St., Springfield.
His work will also be on view Sept. 10 and 11 at the Mattoon Street Arts Festival in Springfield; and in a solo show in September at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.
To view his gallery online, visit www.jimgambarophotography.zenfolio.com. For information, visit www.jimgambarophotography.com.