Family Focus

Views Of Life

New Janice Charach Gallery exhibit showcases work
of father-and-daughter team Steven and Julia Tapper.

Elizabeth Applebaum

Special to the Jewish News

I

tion to detail and seeing the ordinary in an
extraordinary way also are evident in Steven
Tapper's photos, says Janice Charach Gallery
Director Terri Stearn.

n one photo, remnants of deep-green fabric
hang off an old rope, much like moss, limp
Abstract Expressionist
and sickly, clinging to a tree.
It's a picture of a towel — used by an entire Stearn loves one of Steven's pictures that
shows the Kotel, the Western Wall, in Israel.
family in Arusha, Tanzania. Most anyone
The stones are thick and rich with color, with
would walk by and not even notice; Julia
the folds in the notes, stuffed in the cracks,
Tapper decided to take a picture. Without an
so precise you can feel them. "The texture he
image, "how would you ever explain this?"
captures is just amazing," Stearn says.
asks Julia, 24, of Orchard Lake.
Steven studied photography when he was
Julia Tapper is a graduate of the University
young; and he and his wife, Patti, were always
of Michigan who hopes to work for the Clinton
devoted to art. For his photos, Steven prefers
Foundation's HIV Initiative. Her father, Steven,
a digital camera. His approach, he says, "is
has jewelry stores with his brother, Howard
the mindset of an abstract expressionist, as
Tapper's Diamonds & Fine Jewelry in Novi
opposed to a realist photographer."
and West Bloomfield. Both Julia and Steven
So what to anyone else looks like a mop
are passionate about photography. Images
hanging on a wall in Mexico becomes some-
captured by each are included in the exhibit
thing beautiful in his photos. A
"Views of Life" showing at the ,_
window screen, the particular
Jewish Community Center of i 2
color of flower petal, a bunch
Metropolitan Detroit's Janice i
t2 g
of printer's letters or a group
Charach Gallery through
I'
of ribbons all hold astonishing
Sept. 17.
1 :'
beauty in Steven's pictures.
"Views of Life" also features il
A poor girl, a flower, a mop,
photos and art by mother and
a beach — both the Tappers'
daughter Joyce Brodsky of West
images invariably show a new
Bloomfield and Lesley Serri of
way of seeing an everyday
Kalamazoo; and husband and
Steven and J ulia Tapper
moment. Julia just wants you
wife Annette Blady Van Mil
to be certain not to leave with-
and Al Van Mil of Haliburton,
out remembering the message behind that
Ontario. The exhibit reflects the way each sees
life from the smallest details, like a bright flow- moment.
In one village where Julia stayed, some
er in bloom, to the most complicated issues
400 people shared a single toilet. Could
— like helping children in poverty.
Americans even imagine such a situation?
Julia's photos were taken during trips to
When Julia returned to the United States,
Africa, India and Vietnam when she was a
her
father took her out for coffee. But it was
student at U-M. When taking pictures, she
was inspired, she says, by her father's eye. And $3 a cup, and she couldn't do it.
"Spend $3 on a cup of coffee?" she says.
while these are radiant images with a kind of
"That money would cover schooling for two
grave beauty, Julia is not looking to create art
kids for year in Nairobi.
simply to be admired. She is telling a story.
"It's not that I'm saying, `Don't ever go get
Witnessing the poverty of places like East
a cup of coffee.' I just want people to recog-
Africa leaves one aching to do something,
nize the fact that it takes so little to affect so
she says. "And you can either work on the
much positive change in areas that lack basic
ground to affect change" or "bring the
stories back to the United States" to make
human resources."
The Janice Charach Gallery is inside the
people aware, and act.
JCC, 6600 W. Maple Road, in West Bloomfield.
"Julia is a sensitive young lady," says her
father, who lives in Orchard Lake. That many
Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-
Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, and Sunday
of her subjects are so open — people in her
noon-4 p.m. For information, call the gallery at
photos seem to edge as close to her as pos-
(248) 432-5579 or visit www.jccdet.org.
sible, and often even smile — reflects that
compassion, he says.
Elizabeth Applebaum is a JCC marketing
Steven Tapper and his daughter don't take
pictures together; but Julia's compassion, atten- specialist.

0 7,

Julia Tapper
recorded
this image

to document
the one towel
used by a
family in

Tanzania.

Textures
come alive
in Steven

Tapper's
image of
notes in
Jerusalem's

Western Wall.

Steven

Tapper's

images
reveal detail,

color and
beauty in
everyday

things.

❑

August 27 2009

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