While most photographers exhibit their work in traditional galleries and museums, one Northampton photojournalist is taking a different approach: projecting his images onto the side of a historic building.
Photojournalist Paul Shoul, who worked for the Valley Advocate for nearly three decades, will present his outdoor photographic slideshow, “Faces of Downtown,” as a projection onto the Parsons House at Historic Northampton. The event takes place Friday, June 12, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. The original time was adjusted to align with the sunset.
The slideshow includes nearly 60 black-and-white images of people who were fixtures of, or connected to, downtown Northampton in the 1980s and 1990s but have since died. Each is captioned with their name. The slideshow will first play silently before running a second time, during which Shoul will provide commentary and invite the audience to do the same.
“I want people to understand the history of Northampton. … I want to give a certain credence to the personalities that made [the] town what it was,” Shoul said. “I want people to take away that town has always been about the people, less so about structures and buildings. It’s about the people and the nature of those people, and their relationships really craft the quality and character of [the] town.”
The featured individuals span a wide vibrant mix of local history. Among them are illustrator Eric Carle; peace activist Frances Crowe; musician J. Scott “Bow Bow” Brandon, from whom the Bow Bow Bash takes its name; former Gazette publisher Charlie DeRose; lawyer and singer Leah Kunkel, who was also the sister of “Mama Cass” Elliott of The Mamas and the Papas; activist Abbie Hoffman, who was tried and acquitted in Northampton for organizing a sit-in against CIA recruitment at UMass Amherst; elevator operator Margaret Hayes; journalist and activist Al Giordano, Hoffman’s mentee; painter and sculptor Gregory Stone; and Ron Sarazin, owner of the Bay State Hotel.
While showing the Gazette the images in the slideshow at his Northampton home — which was packed with film strips, boxes of Ilford photo paper and other photography gear — Shoul pointed out photos of Bonnie Ascher and Tommy McHugh, whom he called “the one that got this all started.” In his portrait, McHugh, who walked dogs and worked at local restaurants for a living, poses with a small dog on Main Street. Ascher, who collected bottles and also worked in local kitchens, is captured posing with her bicycle between railroad tracks.
/ PAUL SHOUL / Contributed
“Bonnie was a little crotchety but funny, and it took about five years to build up enough trust up with Bonnie to photograph her,” Shoul said. “Often, after assignments, I’d be out, maybe at a bar, maybe at a restaurant. Bonnie was always around, and one day, I was coming home from an assignment. I was in full regalia — I had all my cameras — and I just said to Bonnie, ‘Bonnie, it’s time,’ and she went, ‘I know.’ And we walked up and did this portrait.”
Shoul chose to highlight the 1980s and 1990s in Northampton in part because that era overlapped with his local photojournalism career, but also because the town “was not a blank canvas, but there was room to move for small entrepreneurs who were able to rent stores at a cheap price and try something out.” He also cited the local music and arts communities, which combined to create “a sense of possibility.”
Photos, he said, are “the realest window into that time.”
Shoul noted that history is usually filtered through the lens of economic development and the “moneyed people.” While he isn’t criticizing that reality, he believes photography offers a more democratic perspective.
“But being able to see the faces of the voices we were listening to on the radio that were informing us, I thought that was important,” Shoul said, adding that he wanted to highlight the creators themselves rather than just their finished artwork.
He also aimed to honor the everyday residents who shaped the town’s unique culture. “And [I wanted] to give a little import to the people on the street that gave Northampton a lot of its character at that time,” Shoul said. “They were people we saw every day and had long-term relationships with.”
Shoul created the collection by going through all of his negatives — around 100,000 of them.
“In going through negatives, I’m finding images I never knew I had,” he said. During the era featured in the slideshow, he was usually on assignment, so he’d choose the one photo he needed and “just move on.”
By revisiting his work and creating this collection, though, “It feels like there’s new life that I’m breathing into these images,” he said.
When Shoul first played this slideshow at the Parsons House in May, some people were moved to tears, he said. On his Facebook profile, the gallery featuring these images has amassed view counts in the tens of thousands, alongside hundreds of comments from locals sharing their memories of the subjects.
Following the upcoming event, a selection of those photos — and the accompanying comments — will enter Historic Northampton’s permanent collection.
“It’s a real piece of history,” he said. “And I’m quite proud of that.”
Admission to “Faces of Downtown” is free, and seating is available. For more information about Shoul, visit paulshoulphotography.com.
