Internationally known photographers to speak at Hastings College

Hastings College students and the community at large will have the opportunity to learn from "two of the finest photographers in the world."

That is how Brett Erickson, associate professor of visual arts at Hastings College, described photographers George Nobechi and Kate Breakey, who will give artist keynote lectures that are free and open to the public Wednesday and Thursday.

Nobechi will speak Wednesday, and Breakey will speak Thursday. Both lectures begin at 7 p.m. in French Memorial Chapel on the college campus.

"Honestly, they're (the public) going to get a global perspective and global insights from two of the finest photographers in the world," Erickson said.

Nobechi is a Tokyo-born, Japanese/Canadian photographer, and a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a bachelor of arts in history and international relations.

He has garnered international awards and recognition for his work, with some highlights including selection as a finalist to "Critical Mass" as a global top 200 emerging photographer in 2016, a gold prize in the first annual Tokyo International Foto Awards, selection by curators for the Norman Rockwell Museum to a fine art exhibition in Lenox, Massachusetts, and a feature on "The Candid Frame," one of the most prestigious photography podcasts in the world, as well as numerous group exhibitions around the country.

He has taught photography at the American School in Japan, Tokyo, the British School in Tokyo, and for the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in New Mexico and in Japan. He now splits his time between the expansive desert landscape of southern Arizona and the Japanese countryside.

"It's a rare opportunity to hear an photographer as talented and articulate as George Nobechi speak, especially when one considers he is emerging as one of the great new talents in international photography," Erickson said.

Breakey, an Australian, is internationally known for her large-scale, richly hand-colored photographs including her acclaimed series of luminous portraits of birds, flowers and animals in an ongoing series "Small Deaths."

Her work has appeared in more than 110 solo exhibitions and in more than 50 group exhibitions in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

"Kate Breakey's photographs are among the most beautiful and important of our time," said Erickson.

Breakey's work is held in many public institutions including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos, the Austin Museum of Art, the Australian National Gallery in Canberra and the Osaka Museum in Osaka, Japan.

In addition to Small Deaths, her books include "Painted Light," "Las Sombras / The Shadows," "Slow Light," "Flowers/Birds" and "Our Backyard."

In 2004, she received the Photographer of the Year award from the Houston Center for Photography. She teaches regularly at the Santa Fe Photographic workshops, and Italy's Spirit into Matter workshops.

"You'd have to travel to Santa Fe or Los Angeles, New York, in order to hear these people," Erickson said.

During their time in Hastings, Nobechi and Breakey will work with Hastings College students.

Breakey will lead 10 students on Thursday painting and hand-tinting photographs. At the same time, George Nobechi will talk with a few students and he'll work them through what it means to photograph in the documentary style of the Magnum photo agency, which Erickson said is the most prestigious photo agency in the world.

"He will walk them through how to shoot and how to make 'more powerful documentary photographs,' " Erickson said.

Nobechi and Breakey are coming to Hastings as a favor to Erickson. The three became friends working together as instructors at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.

"Hastings College and the department of visual arts, as well as the new photo program, it has shown that it has a draw for these kind of artists to come in and it gives residents of the area a chance to really hear how some of the world's greatest artists see the world and to talk about their work," Erickson said.

Source: Internationally known photographers to speak at Hastings College