HUB WILLSON BRINGS A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TO LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHY

More Information: Dave Fooks, 610-683-1537
e-mail: david@kutztownfestival.com

Some of the best photography in the Lehigh Valley area comes from the creative lens of Hub Willson, whose photos of local scenes have appeared world-wide. Hub now takes pictures at the Kutztown Festival and at many other major cultural and entertainment events in the region.

Although he has built his fine reputation on his outstanding photography, Hub's early career, before earning his degree at Kutztown University in fine arts and advertising in 1971, was as a musician.

“I have been into music for most of my life, actually since the 1 st grade. I recorded seven albums with various bands and in the 60's was signed with Don Kirchner who was then producing sessions for the Monkeys. My band at the time was asked to co-write some music with Neil Sedaka, who was looking for a new sound. I also did bandstand-type TV shows,” Hub recalls.

. After earning his college degree, Hub traveled around the world over a period of 18 months, spending a year of this time as a missionary in the mountains of remote Papua New Guinea. He describes this as “an experience of a lifetime.” Hub served as an artist-photographer on a missionary team that visited some of New Guinea's 700 tiny villages. Travel conditions were challenging, local transportation between the villages was primitive or non-existent, and he journeyed from place to place mainly by helicopter and on a motor dirt bike.

His global journey also took him to Australia, Japan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and several European countries. All the while during this odyssey, he carried only one suitcase and a camera bag. “The suitcase finally broke apart at the end of the trip at home as I walked into my driveway,” he said.

Upon his return to the United States, Hub started to bridge his musical background with his art and photography skills. He began by taking pictures for album covers and for band promotional publicity. Some of this work was for Musselman Advertising in Allentown, and as he took on more responsibility at the agency he was offered a full-time position there.

Five years later Hub started his own commercial studio. Concentrating at first in music and the arts he shot for the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Repertory Dance Theater, Civic Theater, Pennsylvania Youth Theater, Musikfest, Mayfair, and Celtic Fest - with all of whom he has maintained a 20 year relationship. He also has photographed the works of art of hundreds of area painters and sculptors for juried shows, and he does the photography for the Allentown Art Museum and The Baum School of Art.

Hub says that photographing the Kutztown Festival is one of his favorite local projects and that this has provided him with some of his best stock photos. This is because of the Festival's “consistent quality and predictability for great craftsmen,” according to Hub.

He also has a strong base in all aspects of advertising photography, serving industrial and corporate clients, as well as individual portrait photography.

He did all of the photography for Lehigh Valley Magazine for its first 6 years and his stock photos of the greater Lehigh Valley have appeared in magazines in Germany and Japan.

Recently he has done interior and exterior architectural work for high-end builders, architects and interior designers.

Richard Schultz Design (one of Knoll Furniture's greatest designers in the 1950's and 60's) has Hub shoot their high-end catalogue of furniture collections each year. As a photographer for Miraclesuit Swimwear, Hub has photo shoots annually at exotic locations such as Montego Bay, Jamaica and Isla Morada in the Florida Keys.

His skills have expanded to digital photography which he describes as “just the coolest thing since color film.” He embraces the endless creative possibilities the digital process allows. He has full digital capabilities utilizing Kodak's high resolution SLR digital camera with 14 mega pixels, yielding 38.6mb tif files at 4536x3024pixels.

Hub and his wife Donna are proud of the reputation for quality, satisfaction and the personal service their studio provides. The Hub Willson studio is located just off Route 22 at 1321 N.15th St. in Allentown. The telephone number is 610 434-2178. For more information, and for samples of the wide range of Hub's photography, visit his web site at www.hubwillsonphotography.com

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