Eric Mencher's presentation will look at his 40 year career as a photographer, including a trip as a teenager to the Soviet Union armed with only a Kodak Instamatic, a newspaper career that included 22 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the last ten years in which I lived primarily in Guatemala, photographing with only an iPhone.  Eric Mencher is a documentary photographer concentrating on long-term projects and everyday street photography. Recent projects include contemporary life in the Maya villages of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, and religious traditions in Antigua, Guatemala. Previously, he was a photojournalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he covered assignments around the world and in my own backyard, including the post-apartheid era in South Africa, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, life under Fidel Castro in Cuba, the civil war in Chechnya, and cannolis in South Philly. I also photographed stories in the arts, including the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, the day James Joyce's Ulysses takes place, Cezanne in Provence, and a series illustrating Cervantes' masterpiece, Don Quixote. He was the recipient of the Overseas Press Club Award for "Rwanda: Aftermath of Genocide" and have won other major awards, including prizes in the World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year. My fellowships include a Penn State University Professional in Residence Fellowship, a Terra Fellowship from the Giverny Institute at the Museum of American Art, Giverny, France; and a Pew Fellowships in the Arts, discipline winner.   Eric Mencher is an original member of the Instagram based collective, Hikari Creative. His current camera is an iPhone.

The meeting will be at 7:00PM at Westminster.  We will be working on camera setup and camera settings.  Mentees should bring their cameras, manuals, and questions! This event is for members only.

A full description of this competition theme, including resource links, can be found on the the Competition Themes page here.