Hill photographer to the musical stars, among the others

by Len Lear

Expert photographer Lisa Haun, 63, who grew up in Chestnut Hill in close proximity to the corner of Ardleigh and Mermaid and graduated from Mt. Airy’s Cecilian Academy in 1974, was as soon as assigned to capture the impression of musical superstars like Paul Simon, Joan Jett and a younger U2 front-gentleman, Bono, in the course of the band’s to start with journey to the U.S., and she even stumbled upon a prospect to photograph famed Conquer poet Allen Ginsberg (“Howl”) throughout her 35-calendar year vocation as a photographer.

Which bands were being her favorites? “That’s a big issue,” she claimed past 7 days. “I generally did not get to shell out a whole lot of time with my topics, so I didn’t often know them effectively. It helped to perform with individuals who have been comfy in entrance of the digital camera, and that’s tough for most of us. My favorites are dependent on how pleased I was with the ensuing images, so I’d select Bono, Divine, Henry Rollins. There is a wonderful image of Roddy Body of Aztec Digital camera on the Staten Island Ferry the place you can just the Statue of Liberty in a window at the rear of him. A large amount of decisions.”

Now a Glenside resident for the earlier 18 yrs, Haun started off out executing portraits of musicians for many modest publications. Though she now does the occasional landscape, most of her recent do the job is botanical, primarily close-up portraits of person bouquets and birds.

Haun was at Allens Lane Art Heart from 2008 through 2014 as their administrative coordinator and then went again to run the box office for their theater for many a long time. “It’s a good spot,” stated Haun, who also had a solo display at Allens Lane Artwork Centre, has been section of various group reveals at the Cerulean Gallery in Center Town and experienced a solo exhibit at the Schuylkill Character Middle of portraits of birds from their taxidermy assortment. She has also worked for ADM Gallery in Northern Liberties, assisting to put together the images facet of their group reveals. Her own perform was integrated in a number of of the shows.

Dandelions are a flower house owners normally eliminate from their lawns, but Haun’s close-up graphic of an ordinary dandelion looks like an interconnected website of white fireworks or the framework of a chemical compound in a science textbook.
Haun received her get started in images whilst learning communications at Temple College in the late ’70s. She took a photography class that integrated cost-free use of a faculty Yashica-Mat digital camera, a preferred box camera from the period. In 3 weeks she was hooked. She often worked at WRTI, the school’s then jazz-only student-run radio station, and took pics of regional bands.
She started sending her pics to neighborhood songs fanzines and finding them posted. Haun graduated from Temple in 1980 and continued to get photos of regional bands and harmony aspect-time do the job to spend for her hire. She despatched her portfolio to bigger fanzines.

In the 1990s Haun started performing as a picture researcher for Sony Audio in Manhattan. At the close of the ’90s, she moved to L.A., but within just three months, a book offer and music industry task fell by way of. Haun arrived back again to Philly in 2002 simply because “I was type of homesick.”

It is most tough to make a trustworthy residing in any of the imaginative arts, even worse in the past 15 months, so “day jobs” are typically required just to pay for the fundamentals. For example, Haun is now the business office manager for an architecture company. She also ushers at songs venues on the facet. “If you’ve been to Globe Café Live or Metropolis Winery,” she explained, “there’s a quite good likelihood I took you to your seat…

“Like all of us, my globe for the previous calendar year became a great deal smaller sized. Thankfully, I do the job intently with my subjects and was equipped to nonetheless locate attractiveness and joy in small moments at residence.”

Haun’s pictures are nearly all intense close-ups. “What I want to demonstrate,” she explained, “is that there are lovely things all all-around you if you stop and seem. It’s heartbreaking in a way since it does not previous for good, and we will not usually prevent to seem … My mom experienced the biggest influence on my lifetime. She had a good eye for composition and a authentic knack for interior layout.”

For a lot more info, stop by lisahaun.com or her Instagram account. Len Lear can be arrived at at [email protected]