Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Shooting stars

It's obvious from the post below that I can't shoot stars.

Photographer Elliott Landy of Woodstock, however, has been doing that for a long time.

The Ulster County Community College Larry Berk Artist-In-Residence has shot Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison and a whole bunch of other stars. The college, which apparently likes long titles, is hosting a number of upcoming events with Landy.

The Freeman's Blaise Schweitzer reports about Landy's vision on Friday.

There will be iconic photos, but we only have permission to use them once, in print, which means you are going to have to save 50 outrageous cents in order to see them.
...

About the artist-in-residence program title: The late Larry Berk was a gigantic arts force at the college -- and the community at large. At UCCC, he launched the poetry forum and the artist-in-residence program. He was responsible for much more, but you get the point.

In 1998, he also was my first source for my first story when I was a very green college journalist. He didn't quite like the story about his online literacy program, though his letter to the editor was the nicest I can remember. My awful story started with a bad quote: "It's not worth it." His program later won national recognition, putting me in my place.

He died at 59 in November 2006 after a 5-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
His worthy arts legacy lives on, big time, and I'm sure he would've liked that.