ROCHESTER, NY A new exhibit featuring works by Rochester photographer Louis Ouzer will be on display this fall at the Eastman School of Musics Sibley Music Library (27 Gibbs St.). "An Eastman Portrait: Through the Eyes of Louis Ouzer" will be open to the public for viewing during normal library hours beginning Wednesday, October 11. It will be on display through Friday, December 15. (Call 585-274-1350 for library hours, or visit the Eastman School web site at www.rochester.edu/Eastman).
The exhibit features 20 historic, candid views of Eastman faculty, staff, and students selected from the thousands of black-and-white images Ouzer has taken during the past six decades. The entire collection of prints and negatives was acquired by Eastman earlier this year and now form the Louis Ouzer Archives, housed in Sibleys Special Collections.
Ouzer, 86, has spent most of his life chronicling the Eastman and Rochester communities. His subjects include music legends, Eastman students and faculty of long ago, local landmarks and landscapes, historic events, and everyday activities. Hundreds of the worlds most famous musicians and luminaries in other fields have passed in front of his lens.
Music, photography, and Eastman became intertwining themes in Ouzers life at an early age. Since the 1950s, he and his wife, Helen, have operated an independent photography business within a stones throw of the Eastman School. (It is currently located at 111 East Ave. in Rochester.) Although hired regularly for freelance assignments over the years, he never took a job as staff photographer. His love of Eastman and music is not only reflected in his countless photographs:
At age 75, he began taking piano lessons and studying composition through Eastmans Community Education Division (CED). Ouzer still is a frequent presence at the School. Along with his regular studio work, he currently is involved in writing music and cataloguing his photo collection.
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Note to editors: Lou Ouzer is available for interviews. Samples of his work are available for publication.