Amateur shutterbugs featured in Mount Kisco exhibit

By MARTIN WILBUR

The walls of the Mount Kisco Library’s community room are decorated with more than 80 photos from around the village. But what makes the exhibit special is not just some attention-grabbing images for public viewing but the fact that every photo was taken by an amateur photographer.

This year’s show, the ninth annual photography exhibition “The Nature, Culture & People of Mount Kisco,” was unveiled earlier this month, with photographers capturing special moments from around the 3-square-mile village — birds, deer, people, a winter landscape or a young child looking with wonderment at an old pay phone.

More than 200 photos were entered and evaluated by a five-member selection committee that chose those for public display, said Shonan Noronha, one of the committee members. This year the show, which is organized and overseen jointly by the village’s Conservation Advisory Committee, the Mount Kisco Arts Council, the Mount Kisco Historical Society and the Tree Preservation Board, also includes an experimental category, for entries that didn’t neatly fit into nature, culture and people, she said.

Rules allowed photographers to be from anywhere, but the pictures had to be taken within Mount Kisco. They will be archived by the village’s Historical Society.

“Some of the photos that we have over there have a lot of emotional impact,” said John Rhodes, another committee member.

The public can see the entire exhibit during the library’s hours of operation through Oct. 30. However, access to the community room will be limited because it is an early voting site.

If you can’t make it to the library, check out the five-star photos — 18 images that were unanimously selected by the committee — at kiscophoto.org. All of this year’s photos that were entered will be up on the website by the end of the month.