Mary Ann G. Neuman’s favorite photo, titled “The Eavesdropper,’” was taken in Poland. The photo, a study of people and animals, depicts a cat watching as two women talk under the billboard.
While some photographers shoot weddings, landscapes, or wild animals, Cornwall-on-Hudson resident Mary Ann G. Neuman specializes in photographing humanity.
“It was just a way to record life and all of its forms,” she said. “I’ve always had attentiveness for the poor and disadvantaged of the world. On some level I thought if I could record it, it would create awareness.”
Much of Neuman’s work highlights what women (and men) in our culture, and in other cultures, live with as far as poverty and oppression. In some countries, Neuman said, women are reduced to begging because their husbands have died and they have no means of support.
In her gallery shows, Neuman has made it her mission to bring that misfortune to light. Her ongoing body of work titled “Somebody’s Sister,” portrays the plight of women all over the world. Neuman has amassed an extensive body of work on the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico covering a span of 12 years. The images depict the island’s struggle to stop the military training exercises and bombings on the island.
Over the years, Neuman has used her photos not only to raise awareness, but to raise money to help the disadvantaged and the hungry.
“Contrasts and Contradictions,” a show at the Karpeles Museum, in Newburgh, was presented as a fund raiser for the St. Patrick’s Soup Kitchen, also located in Newburgh. A show at The Grail, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, raised money to help women not only locally, but around the world.
“I’m very concerned, and actually appalled that we have people in this country, and in our own neighborhood, who are hungry and cold. It makes me sick.”
Neuman became interested in photography in high school, and since then she’s always had a camera in her hand. When Neuman ventures out, she doesn’t plan on taking photos, instead the photo opportunities present themselves.
When Neuman graduated from high school and went on to college, she took a few photography classes, but earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology and her master’s in medical sociology. She went on to teach sociology for 20 years at Mount St. Mary’s College and SUNY New Paltz. She also worked as an educator, program developer, and trainer for mental health organizations and private corporations. And she holds a New York State teaching certificate for grades 7 through 12 in social studies.
While Neuman worked, photography was just a hobby. It wasn’t until she retired and her kids were older that she focused on her craft full time.
“You could say what I do now is sociology with the camera.”
Most of Neuman’s photos concentrate on humanity, but she is concerned about those animal species on the brink of extinction.
She once spent eight days on an ice breaker waiting for the chance to capture polar bears on camera.
“We talk about global warming and I saw it. I saw the ice just melting like Niagara Falls. The bears need the ice so they can hunt. If they can’t hunt, they die. It’s a sad commentary on our existence.”
Neuman has photographed animals in Africa and is a strong supporter of zoos. She’s a lifetime member of the Buffalo Zoo, and while she isn’t totally in favor of animals being held in captivity, she’d prefer they breed in a protected environment rather than becoming extinct.
Neuman has been involved in photography for at least 50 years and in that span has had to make the transition from film to digital.
“I fought the digital movement for a long time, but it became harder and harder to use the film cameras.”
When she bought a used digital camera from a fellow photographer, she quickly learned she liked the new technology.
“It was easier to travel with. I didn’t have to worry about film being damaged by X-rays or the security people opening canisters.”
Like many artists, Neuman tries to sell her work in galleries as much as possible. She also has a line of photographic greeting cards which are sold in several local gift shops.
Neuman has had photos appear in “Hudson Valley Magazine” and “Practical Photography,” a British magazine. For its 100th anniversary, the state of Wyoming published a book of photos including one taken by Neuman of a young Indian hoop dancer. Neuman’s photos have hung at the Museo De Fuerte in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and locally at Cornwall Town Hall, and the Garrison Art Center.
Neuman also teaches photography classes at The Grail, the Cornwall Public Library, and the Wallkill River School of Art in Montgomery.
“Everybody has a digital camera and everyone thinks they’re a photographer. They don’t know what all the bells and whistles do, so I spend a lot of time teaching people how to use their cameras effectively.”
Upcoming, Neuman will have work on display at the Hudson Street Café, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, this fall. She’s planning a photography class at The Grail in January, and is in the process of putting together the details for a photo shoot at the Hudson Valley SPCA, where she volunteers in the thrift store. The shoot, which will raise money for the shelter, will entail photographing pets with their owners.
If you are an artist living in Cornwall or Cornwall-on-Hudson, and you would like to be featured in a future edition of The Local, e-mail jasonkaplan@thecornwalllocal.com.
