At the Middletown Springs Historical Society's Museum Open House, Sunday, October 6, 2-4 p.m., guest speaker Emmett Francois will give a slide presentation titled "How Photography Evolved in the Darkroom and Beyond".

This year's Museum Open House program focuses on early photography, one of the key subjects in the current exhibit, Dana S. Carpenter (1863-1940): A Man for All Seasons. Carpenter was the village photographer who documented people and places in Middletown Springs at the turn of the 20th century using a glass-plate-negative camera. The MSHS museum collections includes dozens of examples of Carpenter's glass negatives and printed images.

Today's "village photographer", Emmett Francois, will elaborate on the glass plate negative process and explain how photography changed rapidly from 1890 to the present. His talk, "How Photography Evolved in the Darkroom and Beyond", will reflect on his own experiences as a photographer which began in his father's photo darkroom.

In the early part of his career, Francois worked in the International Art Department of the Reader's Digest and later as a press photographer for the Bergen Evening Record. For over 35 years he taught photography at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Ridgewood Community School, and at Green Mountain College. He was the senior Photographic Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve where he was recognized for bringing the U.S. Navy into the world of digital imaging. In his photographic business of 19 years, he served Fortune 500 companies both nationally and internationally.

The Open House is free, including refreshments before the presentation, and a short gallery talk about the Dana Carpenter exhibit after.

In addition to this year's program and gallery talk, visitors can view the museum's other exhibits, including the exhibit on Dana Carpenter, the Middletown Springs History Timeline, and the history panels in the Mineral Springs Park.

Event Info

Sep 29, 2024, 3 to 5 PM

Oct 2, 2024, 7:30 to 9 AM

Oct 5, 3 PM to 12 AM, Oct 6, 2024