FOCUS: New Alterman book is joyful look of past and present

Count the steeples in this view from First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston. Copyrighted photos provided by Jack Alterman.

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  Jack Alterman’s new book of photographs is a smashingly awesome retrospective. 

The large-format book of 204 pages includes more than 200 photos, some new, some familiar as a frayed, button-down shirt. It’s filled with portraits of people and buildings where crisp, warm light is as much of a star as the subjects.  

You’ll recognize Charleston throughout, particularly in portraits of people from all walks of life.   You’ll find Joe Riley, Marcus Amaker, David Rawle, Dorethea Benton Frank, Philip Simmons, Jack Bass and Nathalie Dupree. 

Then comes Harlan Greene, Layton McCurdy, Robert Dickson, Anthony “Tony the Peanut Man” Wright, Tommy Read and Henry Berlin.  You’ll find artists Mary Whyte, Jonathan Green, John Doyle and Adrianne King Comer.  These are images of strength and character with a smidge of innocence thrown in by the master photographer.

Artist Jonathan Green.

Through the book, you will also travel the world with breathtaking images from Yosemite National Park, New York, Ireland, Indonesia, Paris, Mexico and Africa.  

“Although they were created over many years and in places far apart, they speak to each other through the spirit reflected in their eyes and gestures by design,” Alterman wrote in the foreword.

Edna and her family, St. Helena Island, 1968.

As you flip pages, you’ll find humor and see relationships between very different photos.  Charleston’s Ben Moise, for example, is across a page from a giraffe in Africa.  Then there’s a photo from Central Park in New York of a two-toned brick mosaic that’s across from a black-and-white wall in Indonesia.

“When I review them [the photographs] today, I realize that one picture triggers a memory of another, and when paired together they produce a whole new perspective,” Alterman wrote.

The book is titled, My Lazy Eye, which, Alterman explained, is a tribute to how he got started with photography in the first place after being born with amblyopia, a vision impairment also known as “lazy eye.”

“Both eyes looked normal, but one was out of focus and wearing glasses didn’t help.  If it had been caught early enough, it could have been corrected by wearing a patch over the good eye, but in 1950, who knew? Besides, I think it just made my good eye that much better.”

And so it did.  There’s nothing lazy about Alterman’s new book.  It’s as good as it gets.

My Lazy Eye can be purchased online for $65.

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