Deborah Kantor

Deborah Kantor loves words and their power to communicate precisely and effectively. Yet, she would describe herself as a visual person. She is attracted to visual imagery everywhere and its ability to communicate emotion without words—an eye-catching logo, a compelling photograph, a sky painted with the colors of a setting sun. So, she finds it very satisfying when words and images work in harmony, when they complement each other. She feels fortunate to have spent most of her career working with both words and visuals—as a writer and a photographer.

Deborah considers the skills she uses for writing and photographing as being interrelated. “My visual sense has given me a keen eye for detail, which makes me a proficient copy editor. Writing itself is an editing process—selecting, combining, deleting, rearranging. I mentally edit my thoughts before I commit the first word to paper. Photography means literally ‘writing with light.’ When I frame a shot with my camera, I am consciously editing a detail or a slice of life out of a much larger scene.”

Deborah’s versatility is demonstrated by the variety of work she’s done. Recently, she copyedited a 17-chapter textbook on graphic design. Another project required scripting original video scenarios, which the Hudson River Center for Program Development used to train staff at addiction treatment centers on how to maintain a safe and therapeutic environment. A major past project was photographing over 150 historical documents, two- and three-dimensional works of art, and cultural artifacts from the collections of the 14 member libraries of the Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS) to illustrate its local history and genealogy web site, http://www.mvls.info. She has also photographed many other subjects, including folk artists and their crafts for MVLS’s Ritual Renewals project and to illustrate an article for the New York Folklore Society’s journal, Visions. Prior to starting her own business, Deborah worked as an English teacher and for 16 years as an educational video producer and scriptwriter, a job in which she became adept at integrating words with visuals.

Deborah credits her attraction to words to her love of reading—instilled in her at a very young age by her parents reading to her every night. Her interest in photography began at 17, when her friends gave her a Kodak Instamatic to document her experience as an exchange student in Colombia. At SUNY Albany, she majored in English and minored in studio art. She honed her photographic skills by taking courses and workshops at SUNYA and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Her artistic vision has been influenced by the larger-than-life flower paintings of Georgia O’Keefe and by photographers like Edward Weston who made everyday objects and scenes appear abstract. She also admires Mary Ellen Mark’s documentary work, Lotte Jacobi’s portraits, and the way Joel Meyerowitz captures light.

Although three diverse subjects—flowers, gas pumps, and mannequins—have dominated Deborah’s personal work, they reflect a consistency of style. She prefers to photograph flowers and other subjects up close, to capture details and juxtapositions in structure, color, and light that one doesn’t normally notice. She is also fascinated by the abstractions that occur by shooting close-ups. One of her earliest visual memories, the Mobil flying Pegasus logo at her father’s gas station, may explain her interest in gas pumps. In contrast to the utilitarian gas pumps are the high fashion mannequins she discovered in Palm Beach. Initially attracted by their outrageous (and sometimes demeaning) portrayals of women, Deborah began to appreciate the art of window dressing itself—how props and lighting are used to repeat patterns and shapes found in the mannequin’s clothing or pose. Deborah uses her personal work to create photographic note cards, which she recently began marketing.

Since becoming a member of the Guild’s Albany Chapter three years ago, Deborah has served as the Editor of its newsletter, Guildlines. Under her direction, the newsletter has received many positive reactions: “very professional and crisp in its presentation,” “both beautiful and meaty—a treat to look at and read,” “I am impressed.”

For more information about Deborah’s work and the services of Kantor Writing and Photography, contact her at dkantor@nycap.rr.com.