Photographer John Pinderhughes found love behind the lens of a camera in the mountains of Ethiopia during a summer college trip with Operation Crossroads Africa over 50 years ago.
He has been capturing moments ever since.
Join The Church in Sag Harbor on Sunday, January 19, at noon for the first Insight Sunday of the new year as Pinderhughes shares the special story behind the portrait of his beloved grandmother, his “Gum-Gum,” taken on her first trip to Africa.
Capturing this heartfelt moment would be an inspirational spark to the young Pinderhughes, who would continue to deepen his love for the delicate art of capturing the essence of a moment within the realm of portraiture. With a longstanding career as a commercial and fine arts photographer and an ongoing membership with the Kamoinge Workshop, Pinderhughes proves that passion, commitment and determination can take self-taught artists to new worlds and open doors for themselves and for others. More importantly, his talk asks the audience what role sentimentality plays in the creative process.
John Pinderhughes was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Alabama, Maryland and New Jersey and attended Howard University. He began his career photographing the student uprisings and sit-ins of the 1960s and moved to New York City in the late 1960s to pursue his dream. He worked for McGraw-Hill and Venture and Look magazines, where he learned from many of the prominent professionals of the day, although they did not understand he wanted to be a pro, too, sometimes assuming he was a messenger. In the very early 1970s, Pinderhughes attended the WNET Film and Television Training School, which was the first major effort to help African Americans crack the television and film unions.
Pinderhughes has worked as a commercial photographer in New York City for the past 50 years, operating his own full-service studio. Pinderhughes has also managed to pursue a career in fine art. He has had numerous one-man shows and has exhibited continually over the last 45 years. Prestigious venues include the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. Pinderhughes has received numerous awards and grants, including a recent grant from the Open Society Foundation to document the post-Katrina Gulf region. He is the author of a cookbook, “Family of the Spirit” (Simon & Schuster, 1990), numerous children’s books and “Coming Together,” (Hyperion, 2003), a collaboration with author Harriette Cole. He has been an adjunct professor of photography at New York University and has been a member of the Kamoinge Workshop since the early 1980s.
Tickets are $10 (members free with RSVP) at thechurchsagharbor.com. The Church is at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor.
Staff Writer on Jan 17, 2025