Name Sal Lopes | Education University of Hartford | |
Books Living with AIDS: A Photographic Journal | ||
Salvatore Lopes (usually Sal Lopes) is a photographer and printer of international renown, featured in encyclopedic indexes among the top hundred world photographers. He was a 2013 Anchor Award recipient, University of Hartford, recognizing individuals "who have distinguished themselves by achieving the highest level of professional accomplishments and who possess absolute standards of integrity and character".
He received his BA and MA from the University of Hartford in Connecticut. After teaching in the Hartford school system devising a photographic program to promote reading and writing skills, he joined Richard Benson’s studio in Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1970s. There, exhibitions and edition portfolios were produced from images by Paul Strand and Edward Weston.
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Later, Lopes continued the printing business on his own and specialized in the archival 19th century technique of platinum prints, developing his own style of hand-coated prints.
Photographic work
Over a period of five years in the 1980s Sal Lopes created a body of personal work documenting the newly built Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. He captured the intense emotions of mourning, healing and loss among its visitors. The work culminated in the book, The Wall: Images and Offerings From The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. One-man exhibitions followed at the Chrysler Museum, International Center of Photography, the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Art and elsewhere. This work was also featured on the ABC television news show "Nightline" in 1986.
Lopes’ next project was another memorial, but this time dealing with AIDS. He produced a documentary in three sections: First, covering the traveling AIDS quilt in Boston and Washington; second, a volunteer Buddy program through the AIDS Action Committee in Boston which paired volunteer companions with persons with AIDS; and third, documenting the daily life of a childless couple John and Sharon Boyce who adopted 5 HIV siblings, and of the care and love given to the youngest, Brianna, who received home treatments for AIDS for four years and died shortly before the book was published. The book, Living with AIDS: A Photographic Journal, and a subsequent series of traveling exhibitions received wide recognition.
More recently, he has resumed his work in street photography, which dates back to the late 1970s. He also continues the abstract work: Images of Water. These images of Water are no longer in the documentary vein. Some are printed in platinum, although he has also experimented with digital imaging and color printing. Other projects include: surrealistic macro images, Newport Jazz, Images of Horses, Macro Images, and Tree Forms. His photographs have appeared in magazines articles, and are found in private collections and museums.
Lopes has had experience as a workshop instructor, teaching at the Maine Photographic Workshops, Savannah Photographic Workshops, in Turin, Italy, in California with Cole Weston, and at his studios in Newport and Boston.
Photographic printer
Lopes’ range of printing encompasses the Civil War photographers Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner to many contemporary photographers. His biggest client was Horst P. Horst until Horst's death. Lopes has printed the work of: Carrie Mae Weems, George Hoyningen-Huene, Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, Mary Ellen Mark, Ruth Bernhard, Helen Levitt, Robert Rauschenberg, George Platt Lynes, Anderson and Low, James Fee, Linda Connor, Lisette Model, Lotte Jacobi, Peter Lindbergh, Richard Gere, Phil Trager, Greg Gorman, Mark Seliger, Keith Carter, Henry Horenstein, Philippe Halsman, Nadav Kander, Ralph Mecke, Jill Freedman, Louis Faurer, and others. He has had commissions from the Nickolas Muray Archives (portraits of Frida Kahlo), Aperture Foundation for David Wojnarowicz, the estate of Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Minor White, from the estate of Edward Weston, Life Gallery of Photography (Margaret Bourke-White), Vision Gallery (Ruth Bernhard, Judy Dater, Paul Caponigro, Otto Hagel, Hansel Mieth, Mario Cravo), the estate of Edward Weston, Staley-Wise Gallery, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Debra Heimerdinger Fine Art (David Halliday), Light Work, Camera Work, Berlin, and Roger Urban.
Exhibitions
Award
In 2013, Sal Lopes received the highest alumni award from his Alma mater the University of Hartford.