“Meet the Artist” with Andy Satter

On Thursday, September 19, we welcome Andy Satter to “Meet the Artist” night at CPW. Satter will present images from his recent work: The Diner Project – A Community Lost to Progress, a collection of candid black & white portraits and still life photographs taken inside a 1935 lunch car diner in a blue-collar neighborhood in Cambridge, MA, between 1974-1977.  Enter and meet the staff and regulars of Russ’s Kitchenette Diner, a tightly knit community that embraced joy and laughter in the face of encroaching urban renewal, shifting race relations, and upheaval in America’s place in the world. Taken at a time when nearly one in three workers belonged to a union – today it’s one in ten – and when workers had jobs for life and dignity, the Diner Project captures a place and time in American labor history that no longer exists. A viewer of the Diner Project exhibition recently commented, “The folks in Andy’s photos are brought to life in such a direct and heart-opening way.  I left feeling I knew them, and cared for them, myself – it was a beautiful weaving together of story and sensitive illustration.” Andy will also show scenes from filmmaker David Sutherland’s “Down Around Here” award winning documentary about the diner. Andy’s photos were shot in 35mm and 4”x5” with natural light. Don’t miss your chance to purchase postcard images from The Diner Project from Andy during the evening! This event will be live-streamed on CPW’s YouTube page at 6pm.

Join us every Thursday evening at CPW, when we host illuminating talks with local and visiting artists. “Meet the Artist” allows the public to get to know new work, to hear about artistic processes, and to meet friends and other local artists. The evening takes place at CPW’s gallery at 474 Broadway in Kingston, NY. It is free and open to the public. Coffee, tea, and snacks are served. “Meet the Artist” is made possible by a generous grant from the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation.

Andy Satter is a photographer who transforms everyday moments into richly sensorial experiences where history, place, sound, sight, and smell converge. His images embody the lyrical documentary style, first associated with Walker Evans, which prioritizes a poetic, emotional, and aesthetically driven approach to seeing. Growing up in New Jersey, Andy learned photo-chemistry from his grandfather at the age of nine. In the mid-1970s, while studying film, photography, and psychology in Boston, he apprenticed at a commercial studio and freelanced as a jazz concert photographer for The Christian Science Monitor. Andy’s photographs of renowned American architect Bruce Goff in 1976 were recently acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago and are now part of its permanent collection. 

In 2023, Andy discovered an unmarked box in his basement, presumed lost during a move twenty-five years ago. The box contained photos from this same Boston period and, celebrates the lives of blue-collar workers in the United States. This discovery became the foundation for “The Diner Project – A Community Lost to Progress,” an exhibition that will also be the subject of a forthcoming photobook. 

Andy and his wife have lived in the Hudson Valley since 1998.

Banner image: Andy Satter.