New Kensington photographer featured in 'Pittsburgh Off the Wall' photo exhibit

When Don Henderson of New Kensington has a lunch break from his job as a graphic artist or time to kill, he reaches for one of his 400 cameras and takes to the streets.

Henderson is one of six area photographers featured in “Pittsburgh Off the Wall,” an exhibition running Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Ketchup City Creative in Sharpsburg. Former New Kensington resident Jaime Bird, whose work chronicles street life and streetscapes, is also among the photographers.

“I’m thrilled to be asked to be in the exhibit,” said Henderson, who has been honing his craft since 1976.

“I’m the old guy in the group,” he noted.

A graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Henderson is the founder of the New Kensington Camera Club.

Henderson started the club to raise money for the historical marker at the corner of Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue in New Kensington honoring the city’s native son and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams.

Also featured in the urban street photo exhibit is work by Pittsburgh area photographers Heather Brown, Sootz Photo, Ben Brady and Evan Mulgrave.

“We’re trying to open people’s eyes and minds in a different way through the eyes of others,” said gallery owner Nanci Goldberg, of Shaler.

The exhibit is free to the public; prints will be for sale.

“We encourage people to look to local artists for art on their walls,” she said.

Although Henderson takes to the streets looking for subjects to photograph, he doesn’t consider himself a street photographer.

Whatever catches his eye at the moment becomes his focus, whether it is a woman crossing the street in downtown Pittsburgh in high winds, a telephone pole in New Kensington or an old steam locomotive in Harmar decades ago.

“With photography, you don’t have to answer to anybody,” Henderson said. “I don’t do it for money, although I sell stuff. The motivation is to capture the world around me, and that’s what I do.”