Chuck Haupt

I first became interested in photography in my pre-teen years after I sent in product labels for a free Kodak Instamatic. Then I was hooked.

I quickly upgraded cameras to an SLR, shooting nature. In high school I was exposed to photojournalism, which got me interested in telling people’s stories visually. I went on to do this professionally for 36 years, mostly at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, NY.

My work as a photojournalist has taken me to a wide variety of places, from hospital operating rooms to professional golf tournaments, to lower Manhattan in the hours after the 9/11 attacks, and into the homes of ordinary people with extraordinary stories to tell.

Now retired from the newspaper profession, I am back to my first love: shooting nature. Traveling is high on my agenda: I spent four months in 2014 discovering London and beyond, and am now refining my shooting style to mostly black & white.

Photography freezes moments in time, forever. The camera alone does not make the picture; I make it, using my eyes, emotions and heart. Using black and white in the final image captures the mood and emotion of the photograph.