Howie Pohl

Artist Statement

My work is exclusively analog, shot on black-and-white film and printed in my home darkroom of 39 years. When the world went digital, I stayed behind. I had been pursuing photography as a hobby when a friend, a retired art teacher, told me that my photos were worthy of being shown in galleries. I thought she was profoundly mistaken, but I entered a local show and was selected. Since then, my work has been exhibited in over 8 galleries and museums. I had my first solo show of 25 images at the Freeport Memorial Library in New York in 2022, and had two of my photos selected for the most prestigious exhibition on Long Island, the Biennial, at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York, in 2021. Having won second place in an exhibition, I was then selected to display six of my photos in a Winner's Showcase at the Mills Pond Gallery in St. James, New York, in 2025.

Most of my photos are taken on random trips throughout Long Island. I attempt to find art where others might not look. As an analog photographer, I concentrate on capturing the best image at the time of exposure rather than relying on extensive postprocessing. I believe it has qualities that cannot be reproduced via digital photography. Unlike a lot of digital photography, my results are never perfect, and I prefer it that way. I have studied the works of the great photographers of the 20th and 21st-century photographers, and have been influenced by many of them, including Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Andre Kertesz, and Ernst Haas. From them, I have learned that the best art does not come from the most spectacular scenes, but from the quiet recording of images.

I maintain an interest in all styles of photography, however, and hope that some of those influences rub off on me, even if I do not employ the same techniques to produce my photographs. Towards that end, I am the Vice-President of the Long Island Center of Photography (LICP), a group of highly respected artists. We have monthly meetings where we critique each other's photos, not with the purpose of assigning a score and handing out ribbons, but with the desire to improve each other's work. I help to arrange visits to galleries and special exhibits throughout the New York area, and have taken over the responsibility of the organization's website, completely overhauling it in the last six months.