by Len Lear
Qualified photographer Lisa Haun, 63, who grew up in Chestnut Hill around the corner of Ardleigh and Mermaid and graduated from Mt. Airy’s Cecilian Academy in 1974, was after assigned to capture the picture of musical superstars like Paul Simon, Joan Jett and a younger U2 front-gentleman, Bono, through the band’s initially excursion to the U.S., and she even stumbled on a likelihood to photograph famed Defeat poet Allen Ginsberg (“Howl”) during her 35-calendar year profession as a photographer.
Which bands had been her favorites? “That’s a significant concern,” she claimed past 7 days. “I usually didn’t get to expend a good deal of time with my subjects, so I did not normally know them nicely. It helped to do the job with folks who ended up comfy in entrance of the digicam, and which is hard for most of us. My favorites are based on how satisfied I was with the resulting photographs, so I’d choose Bono, Divine, Henry Rollins. There’s a charming picture of Roddy Frame of Aztec Digicam on the Staten Island Ferry where by you can just the Statue of Liberty in a window behind him. A lot of alternatives.”
Now a Glenside resident for the earlier 18 a long time, Haun began out carrying out portraits of musicians for numerous compact publications. Even though she now does the occasional landscape, most of her current do the job is botanical, primarily shut-up portraits of unique bouquets and birds.
Haun was at Allens Lane Art Center from 2008 by means of 2014 as their administrative coordinator and then went again to run the box office environment for their theater for many decades. “It’s a good spot,” claimed Haun, who also had a solo present at Allens Lane Artwork Middle, has been component of many group demonstrates at the Cerulean Gallery in Center Metropolis and experienced a solo exhibit at the Schuylkill Mother nature Center of portraits of birds from their taxidermy selection. She has also labored for ADM Gallery in Northern Liberties, assisting to set alongside one another the photography side of their group reveals. Her own operate was bundled in a number of of the displays.
Dandelions are a flower homeowners often take away from their lawns, but Haun’s close-up impression of an common dandelion appears like an interconnected web of white fireworks or the composition of a chemical compound in a science textbook.
Haun got her start in pictures even though learning communications at Temple College in the late ’70s. She took a pictures class that bundled free of charge use of a school Yashica-Mat camera, a common box camera from the era. In a few weeks she was hooked. She in some cases labored at WRTI, the school’s then jazz-only college student-run radio station, and took shots of community bands.
She started sending her pictures to local audio fanzines and receiving them posted. Haun graduated from Temple in 1980 and ongoing to just take shots of regional bands and stability element-time perform to shell out for her hire. She sent her portfolio to much larger fanzines.
In the 1990s Haun started functioning as a image researcher for Sony Tunes in Manhattan. At the close of the ’90s, she moved to L.A., but inside three months, a e-book offer and new music market task fell by way of. Haun came back to Philly in 2002 since “I was kind of homesick.”
It is most challenging to make a dependable living in any of the artistic arts, even worse in the past 15 months, so “day jobs” are frequently desired just to pay out for the essentials. For instance, Haun is now the office supervisor for an architecture business. She also ushers at new music venues on the side. “If you have been to Environment Café Dwell or City Vineyard,” she claimed, “there’s a very excellent probability I took you to your seat…
“Like all of us, my planet for the past 12 months grew to become a ton smaller. Luckily, I operate closely with my topics and was capable to nevertheless obtain splendor and joy in tiny moments at dwelling.”
Haun’s images are nearly all excessive shut-ups. “What I want to present,” she stated, “is that there are stunning items all all over you if you quit and glance. It can be heartbreaking in a way simply because it does not very last eternally, and we do not often cease to glimpse … My mom had the best influence on my daily life. She had a terrific eye for composition and a genuine knack for interior design and style.”
For much more info, go to lisahaun.com or her Instagram account. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.