Williamsport Native's Art on Display at Julie's Coffee

A black and white perspective - Michael Blackwell

Julie’s Coffee, 33 West Third Street, Williamsport will host photographer Michael Blackwell as their guest artist for January’s First Friday. His exhibition titled “A Black and White Perspective” will open with a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The show will run through the end of February.

Blackwell, a Williamsport native, grew up in Loyalsock and graduated from Williamsport High School.  He was a performer in the Concert Choir, the Vocal Jazz Band, and attended summer stock theatre in Cape May, New Jersey.  More recently, he has performed with the Community Theatre League.

For the past 18 years, he was worked for Sabre Communications, which is now Backyard Broadcasting .  He is a radio personality known as Jake Michaels on Oldiez 93 WBZD.

“For me, photography has become a new creative outlet, a different way to express myself and what I see in life.  I was always the casual shutterbug, but over the past four years, I have been seriously involved.  After stepping up from the simpler point and shoot type cameras to a more advanced DSLR camera, it has been practically attached to my hip.  Rarely, do I travel anywhere without my camera.

I can find inspiration for a photo in just about anything I see.  From the simple flower sprouting for the first time in spring to the various iconic structures that surround us.  If you stop and look around you for a moment, it’s all there to see.  Pictures spark a memory, take you back in time, and can reveal emotion.  This is what continues to feed my desire to photograph the world around me and the fact that no two pictures are the same.”

Blackwell has studied the basics of photography, but is mostly a self-taught artist.   This is his first show in all black and white photography and he has found it more of a challenge than his color work.  “When shooting in color, you can use that color to lead the eye into or around the photograph.  In black and white, you must use shapes, tones, and textures in your frame as points of interest,” he said.