Several local artists are featured in an exhibit hosted by LIU Post, now through Aug. 27, titled “Endless Summer – Visions of Long Island.” The exhibit is a fundraising event for the Nassau County Firefighter’s Operation Wounded Warrior (NCF-OWW), a non-profit organization centered on providing much-needed items to the wounded men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Photographer Roni Chastain of Glen Cove is one of the featured artists.
“I am thrilled to be participating in an exhibit to support the Nassau County Firefighters Operation Wounded Warrior,” says Chastain. “Our war veterans deserve to be supported for the work they do to protect the USA. I do believe in giving back and have volunteered to photograph several fund raising events over the past few years. This includes Komen Walk for the Cure, Hope in Motion, Kids Triathlon. I will be photographing the walk for Gift of Life in September.
A self-described “passionate photographer for over 40 years,” Chastain has traveled extensively to photograph the world.
“Last year my travels took me to Iceland, Cuba and Italy. I love wildlife, action photos, landscapes, macro, abandoned, urban exploration. I can always find ways to continue to master the art of photography,” she says.
Chastain is a retired visiting nurse who worked with mothers and babies for the first 24 years of her career, then worked with adults until she retired two years ago.
“I have always incorporated my photography in both my professional and private life,” Chastain says. “I started a photography business about 12 years ago. I completed a course in professional photography from the NY Institute of Photography. Now I am working as a professional photographer, in my second career.”
Chastain is a long-time member of National Association of Photoshop Professionals and is one of the founding members of the Long Island Photography Meetup group, which she has organized for the past four years. The group has more than 250 members and goes to various locations in the tri-state area to photograph different venues. She is also a member of the Glen Cove Camera Club.
“I am inspired by my love of creating an image, documenting a moment in time,” says Chastain. “I can go anywhere and always see something to photograph. I always have a camera with me.”
Chastain has had photos published in several books and has had photos in several juried shows on Long Island including at the Hecksher Museum in Huntington, Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Exhibit, FotoFoto Gallery, the African American Museum in Hempstead, the Manhasset Library. She recently received an honorable mention for one of her photos in the “Women of the World” exhibit in the Hutchins Gallery.
Curated by Jill Rader Levine, an art consultant, the exhibit includes art from more than 50 of Long Island’s most distinguished, award-winning artists and photographers, who are making donations to the NCF-OWW, as well as donating a portion of any sales of their artwork to the organization. The theme of the exhibit is summer on Long Island expressed in a wide variety of styles and mediums. More than 150 works of art will be displayed.
The exhibition will be professionally judged by Seung Lee, director of Fine Arts and professor of Art at LIU Post, Marc Kopman, a professor of the Hutton House Lectures at LIU Post, Dominick Totino, the official photographer for the Queens Borough president and photographer Tab Hauser.
The exhibit is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. 720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, at the Hutchins Gallery in the Schwartz Library, lower level.
