Bill Zarchy

With months to plan, I jumped at the chance to organize an exhibit of my photographs at our synagogue.

Plenty of time for a series of interesting and sometimes costly decisions on the number, size, and presentation of pictures, as well as arrangement, hanging, lighting, etc.

I knew I wanted to feature a plethora of photos, more than the 30 or 40 I had seen in previous exhibitions in the same space, on a potpourri of subjects — flowers, sunsets, landscapes, and Judaism; travel shots from Ireland, Italy, Hong Kong, Holland, Florida; people in Israel, India, China, Scotland, and Mexico; plus a few abstracts, some baseball photos, and many from dog walks near my home in northern California.

My first-ever photography exhibit.
Congregation Beth El, Berkeley. Fall 2019.

I inherited my love of creating images from my dad.

He always had cameras and took photos to illustrate his books on crafts and the outdoors. I loved watching him print pictures under a red safelight in the darkroom. I oohed and aahed as images slowly appeared on the photo paper soaking in developer.

This collection of photographs is a smorgasbord of topics and styles. Faces and places, flowers and plants, and a few Jewish ritual objects. Also: some baseball shots. Because baseball is life.