Charles Kronauer is a Harvard native, having lived here all his life with the exception of a four-year stint in the US Navy, grad school, and a year in Dallas. His grandfather, a civil engineer and railroad executive, was a camera buff and amateur photographer, and his father took family photos with a sturdy Ziess Icon back when Kodachrome was king. He recalls, "I was lucky enough to have a temporary darkroom in my parent's bathroom (put up-take down each time) with an enlarger for 35mm. The seminal moment that pushed me from an occasional snap shooter into an avid lover of the media was when I purchased a Nikkormat (the low end Nikon) with a normal and telephoto lens in 8th grade. In those days, if you wanted to do your own processing, black and white was pretty much the only way to go. Color was too expensive and complicated for the average consumer, but you could get great results on 8x10 Agfa variable contrast paper. I had a few close friends who also took photos and we argued the fine points of whether to use Tri-X or Plus-X."

Throughout high school, and at Harvard, he kept up with photography as a hobby and an occasional paid job for friends. A course on the history of photography his junior year afforded him an appreciation of the old masters and the 20th century adventurers such as Man Ray, Stieglitz and Robert Frank. Cartier Bresson became his inspiration, and later Eugene Smith. During his tour aboard the USS Caron based out of Norfolk, VA, he was the designated ship's photographer. He explains, "I convinced the XO to let me use a small space that had running water as a darkroom. I would take photos around the ship, even from our helicopter, and ashore, such as during a port call. I moved up to a Nikon F3 (a thing of beauty) and made a parallel journey into medium format with a Mamyia 645 system that I bought off a petty officer on board the ship. The quality of the larger negatives was amazing and I began to learn how to make sharp, beautiful prints of people, nature, and urban environments. Years later I moved even further up-scale in terms of format with a 6x8 Fuji system with removable film backs. It took 120 roll film like the 645, but produced a third the number of images per roll. Large negatives, low grain, and huge prints became my passion."

He never gave up the 35mm, but the quality of the small negatives and its tendency to exaggerate any imperfection under enlargement was off-putting. He continued to shoot slides and joined a local photo club for several years. He remembers, "The club had a competitive side to it, which I enjoyed, and it pushed me to get out and shoot-whether on vacation or business travel. I learned how to do studio photography and did a bit of portrait and commercial work, mostly for the companies I worked for."

"The digital revolution was a huge transformation for me. My trips to my large custom darkroom had diminished to perhaps once every four months and I was not doing much creatively. When the price was right (the early digital Nikons were $35k) I jumped in with both feet. I took to it quickly beginning with a Nikon D100 (which we still have) and I sold all of my emulsion based equipment, keeping my Nikon lenses. Over the past nine years or so, I have been swimming in the deep end of the digital pool, learning Photoshop and understanding how to get the most out of my Epson printer. The technique for shooting is still the same-the lighting, composition, lens selection-only now you can expand your range of creativity, take more images (sometimes too many) and have more top-end results. I am enjoying my Leica M9 because it is almost completely manual and makes me slow down. So no more worrying about the cost of another roll of film or the weekly visits to the General Store photo department. On the other hand, as the technology advances, you tend to put money into newer equipment, computers, printers and so forth. But I love it, and would not go back. Even the black and white is better, richer and more appealing. In fact I am doing plenty of B&W, taking me back to the days when I would savor the Ansel Adams books, or the photo essays in Life Magazine."

"Ansel Adams and Edward Weston epitomized the very essence of clarity, sharpness, tonal range and classic composition. Almost everything was on a tripod. That is why I procured the best 35mm cameras and moved to larger formats using 120 fine-grain roll film. Same with digital-big sensor cameras (full frame 35mm) and excellent lenses are important. But I also use the light, shutter speed, and aperture to squeeze the maximum out of a photographic situation, even a quick shot on the street. Having said that, I also really like the works of contemporary photographers Constantine Manos, Alex Webb (now at the MFA), and Steve McCurry (Leica Hall of Fame), all of whom are street and people photographers, or what they call reportage photography. The masters of this of course from the 20th century were Eugene Smith and Cartier Bresson."

Charles' photos have that distinct quality of very sharp detailed imagery, precise yet stunningly beautiful. There is also a timeless feel to his work. His use of shadow is eye-stopping and pleasing. It is easy to imagine his images on the pages of an elegant fine arts book.

His abstract work is done completely in Photoshop using multiple images. He explains, "There is a lot of trial and error, but I have a pretty good sense of what works now. It's a lot of fun and the occasional surprises are welcome. Usually I combine two or three images and use a lot of different blending modes and layer masking to isolate various parts of an image."

Charles, a professional photographer, has taught photography and Photoshop at Clark University. He enjoys shooting weddings, portraits, and other small commercial projects such as events, table-top product shots, and art portfolios. He hopes to offer a photography class in town for a small class of perhaps six students over the course of three or four weeks and is also thinking pretty seriously about doing an open house with a friend.

To see more of Charles' work visit his website at www.kronauerphoto.com or send inquiries to ckronauer@mac.com.