Through the lens of Newberry Photography

NEWBERRY — Within Newberry County there are plenty of groups that people can get involved in, but among those groups is one that allows members to capture the soul of the county.

The Newberry Photo Group was created around spring of 2018 when Robert Matheson asked Marquerite Palmer and Sharon Graham if the Newberry Arts Center had any groups involving photography.

Matheson asked this initially because he said that is part of his trade.

“They said they didn’t and so we started it small, just at the Arts Center, meeting once a month. We set a theme, and that theme is what people interpret through the lens,” Matheson said.

Today, Matheson said they have approximately 60 people that have either joined the Facebook page or are on the email list.

He said they find that people interact in different ways in the group, some preferring to post on Facebook, some prefer to get together and do photo walks, and others send in their photos and they do a slideshow of the theme every month.

As previously mentioned, each month the Newberry Photo Group has a new theme for members to interpret and photograph. Some of these have included, water, panorama, haunted, reflections and many more.

“We try to keep them a little more generic so you can take the theme whatever way you want,” Matheson said. “One of the things I look forward to the most is how does someone see through the lens and think of an idea.”

An example of someone’s creative take on a theme came from Christina Henricks during the haunted theme. Matheson said she photographed only in her home and she set up things that looked or felt spooky to her and tried to capture an emotional state of something haunted. He said this included an empty chair in the corner, strange shadows, or something blurry in a dark hallway.

“When it comes to the themes, you could literally take a picture of the word haunted printed on a page. You could do whatever kind of thing you want, that’s kind of what I enjoy about the themes,” Matheson said. “So the West End (the January theme), I’ve been curious to see if we get anything interpreted different than this neighborhood.”

Some other photograph highlights that Matheson enjoyed include one from Brian Hare during the panorama theme where he took a picture of graffiti on a railcar and Oswaldo Tapia’s work with taking photographs of wildlife and birds.

“Robert did some cool stuff over at Cry Baby Bridge, cool stuff with our haunted theme there,” said Hare.

Hare, a member of the group, said he is picking the camera back up and was inspired by seeing some of Matheson’s work.

“I like learning from people who have a good eye, Oswaldo has a good eye, Robert has a good eye, John Sukovich has a good eye, and I like learning the way they frame things. It is fun to learn from people out there doing things like that,” Hare said.

In regards to photography, Tapia said someone once told him that you see something once, but you take a picture of that something and you can see it all the time.

Hare added that he enjoys that you can pick out a subject that a thousand people pass every day, but you can take a photograph of it from a perspective they don’t usually see.

“You can pick out an old building and take pictures of the architecture people just ignore in their daily rush,” he said.

Matheson said the group allows them to explore places off the beaten path. He said that along with Hare, they went to the old white St. Johns Church in Pomaria, they were able to get inside the historic structure and photograph it.

“This group allowed me to get in there and see that, to document ” he said. “There are so many unique and beautiful places in Newberry (County) that many people are unaware of. We want to document and raise the awareness of these wonderful places.”

Since the inception of the Newberry Photo Group in 2018, Matheson said they’ve had a few exhibits featured at the Newberry Arts Center, but that ended due to COVID-19. However, he said some their work will be going into the art rotation at the Arts Center.

Right now, the group is meeting every month over Zoom, if you are interested in joining the Newberry Photo Group you can call the Newberry Arts Center at 803-321-1022 or find them on Facebook at Newberry Photo Group.