KNPR founder trades radio for international portraiture
For most of his working life, Lamar Marchese focused on the sound of things.
Not a surprise, considering that the longtime Las Vegan is the founder and first general manager of Nevada Public Radio.
After more than three decades in radio, Marchese retired in 2007 — and his focus shifted from the ear to the eye, thanks to his post-retirement pursuit of photography.
He shares some of what, and who, he’s seen in a new exhibit at Sahara West Library, which begins a two-month run with a free reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday.
“Global Villagers: Street Portraits From Around the World” — Marchese’s sixth solo show — presents 30 large-format digital prints chosen from more than 22,000 photographs Marchese shot in 22 countries, from Australia to Zanzibar, on multiple international treks.
But photography is hardly a new pursuit for Marchese, 74, who picked up his first serious camera — a 35mm single-lens reflex Pentax — while he was in graduate school.
“I never took a class; I taught myself,” he recalls. “I see the world in photographs.”
That was long before he had a chance to see the world, however.
After Marchese retired, “I thought it was the perfect opportunity to pick up something I loved,” he notes.
By that time, photography had changed, with digital imagery replacing film cameras.
With the latter, “you only had 24 to 36 shots — and film is expensive,” Marchese explains. “With digital, you have unlimited capacity. You just shoot and shoot and shoot.”
Which is exactly what he did — on a 2016 around-the-world cruise Marchese took with wife, Patricia, former head of Clark County Parks and Recreation, to celebrate their 50th anniversary. (Some of the portraits featured in “Global Villagers” were shot on previous trips to Turkey, India, Nepal and Peru.)
Whittling down the thousands of photos he took to the 30 featured in “Global Villagers” requires a heavy-duty editing process Marchese dubs “killing your children.”
Every night on the ship, after returning from the day’s excursion, Marchese would review his photos and post the best ones on Facebook via a satellite uplink; the ones receiving the most “Likes” were, “about 90 percent of the time, what I would pick.”
Sometimes, however, a photograph stands out to Marchese because of the connection he shares with the subject.
One example: an aboriginal man in Cairns, Australia, who wanted “to bum a cigarette” — until Marchese offered to buy him a pack of smokes if he’d allow Marchese to take his picture. That one “resonated with me because words were spoken” — by two English speakers.
In other countries where he didn’t speak the language, “thumbs up is a universal gesture,” Marchese notes.
In Togo, West Africa, Marchese spotted a “very imposing” Tuareg tribesman “with a big scimitar he was trying to sell me,” he recalls.
“I had my camera around my neck” and Marchese mimed shooting a photo, prompting his subject to nod his agreement. “It was one of those things,” Marchese says. “The right light, the right guy.”
The photographer also enjoys capturing children with his camera because “they’re so open and honest,” he notes, without “the inhibition of adults.”
Overall, faces fascinate Marchese.
“Beautiful or ugly, if there’s something about it that’s intriguing,” he asks to shoot a photo, and “95 percent of the time, people say yes.”
The portraits on display at Sahara West are 16 by 20 inches, almost life-size images — images that reflect not only differences but shared emotions and experiences, Marchese says.
As his journeys prove, he says, “the global village — it’s here.”
Around the world — by the numbers
Photographer Lamar Marchese’s exhibit “Global Villagers: Street Portraits From Around the World” opens Thursday and runs through April 29 at the Sahara West Library. Most of the 30 portraits were taken on an around-the-world cruise that included stops in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, North Asia and French Polynesia.
Some notable numbers:
Duration of voyage: Six months
Length of voyage: More than 47,000 nautical miles
Number of ports: 57
Number of countries visited: 22
Number of photographs taken: 22,000
Preview
Who: Lamar Marchese
What: “Global Villagers: Street Portraits from Around the World”
When: Reception 7-9 p.m. Thursday; exhibit open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, through April 29
Where: Sahara West Library, 9600 W. Sahara Ave.
Admission: Free (lvccld.org)
Contact Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.
