HOT SHOT 24 North Shore Towers Courier n December 2015 Dawn Steinberg featured at gallery showing By Stephen Vrattos NST shutterbug You’ve probably seen Dawn Steinberg’s work, whether hanging in the Coleridge Lounge of Building #3, the hallway outside the management office or within the pages of the North Shore Towers Courier, most recently covering the Towers Restaurant renovations and grand opening, and Babes & Guys Charity Golf Tournament. Her work has also been featured at the Manhasset/ Great Neck library and recently, at the Douglaston/ Little Neck Library. Now, 18 examples of Dawn Steinberg’s photographic artistry can be seen at the new Tobi Held Gallery in West Hempstead as part of the space’s inaugural exhibition. Part of the newly renovated historic New York Equestrian Center, the gallery held its Grand Opening, Saturday, November 14th, and Steinberg’s work will be on display for four weeks until mid-December, one of only six artists featured and the only one, whose photographic work is pure. “The other artists who use photography in their work are not the same as mine,” Steinberg explains. “They manipulate the image a lot using computer programs. I don’t do that.” Steinberg’s work came to the attention of the gallery founder through a mutual friend. “She’s a very talented artist,” Held says. “She has a skill at capturing the exact right moment.” Dawn Steinberg’s work has been providing splashes of art to the residents of North Shore Towers since her move to the co-op in 2009, although the former career teacher has been shooting for most of her life. She began using photography as a creative writing tool in her teaching. Early in her marriage, it was the birth of her son that provided the spark to transform part of the basement into a dark room, which she used to chronicle the latest addition to the family. She rediscovered the art form many years later after retirement and the loss of her husband, when she became a grandmother, “documenting every smile, step and activity of my two grandchildren,” she says. More than just capturing an image, Dawn Steinberg captures moments. Her photos tell a story. Some hang on the edge of what has come before and that which has yet to occur; others encapsulate an experience in a single breath; while still others make the audience feel almost intrusive, embarrassed for having stumbled upon an intensely personal vignette they were not invited to see. All are far more than what they appear on paper. The breadth of her skill with a camera may be more apparent in her artistic shots, like those found in the aforementioned Coleridge Lounge, but even in her seemingly more mundane work as a reporter for The Courier, her photographs are different; chronicling an unusual angle, fresh perspective or nontraditional viewpoint, outside what one would normally find as example in a printed news story. “I love capturing images of the natural world—people, animals, places—or manmade architecture,” she explains. “I enjoy finding beauty in the mundane, whether it is a lineup of bikes, the base of the Eiffel Tower or a stack of kettles. Beauty surrounds us; we just have to open our eyes to take it all in.” Photos by Stephen Vrattos and Dawn Steinberg “Bear” taken at Antelope Slot Canyon in Utah Gallery founder Tobi Held with Dawn Steinberg “Man on Bridge” “Cambodian Boy and Pet”
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