A&I’s Trusty Eyes Capture 14th Straight Festival

The path up to Judy Sirota Rosenthal’s home, winding down a narrow side street and through a jubilant, overgrown garden, leads to another, transcendent plane.

Simple enough to get to but very hard to leave, her home is filled with histories past and present. There are the stuffed stockings, tributes to her mother, that came from the sociology major turned artist. There are a series of ritual objects, prayer flags displayed in Bethany and at the Chesterwood Museum in the early 1990s, ceremonial rods to express her reverence for ​“everything natural” and for what she perceives as the 15 (rather than 12) tribes of Israel, including Dinah. There are sculpted balances that represent the translocation of souls. Sharing space with her daughter Sylvie’s whimsical sculptures and pictures of her grandchildren, these make appearances in each room, glinting from their places like talismans waiting to be used. 

She is deeply in touch with everything around her, and, not surprisingly, brings that same state of mind to her photographic practice. Her work from the Foote School, Institute Library, Arts Council, Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, and Fair Haven Health Clinic are all testimony to that. She doesn’t stop at those, though. For some 14 years now, Rosenthal has helped photograph the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, watching as performers and performance venues change, new acts take the main stage by storm, and festival staff tries to strike a balance between local, national, and international talent.

Last week, as this year’s festival got underway, I had the chance to sit down with her and talk about some of the transformations that she’s seen.

Independent: Let’s talk about your practice. When did you start doing photography? Did you know that you wanted to be a photographer? 

Rosenthal: Since I was a child, I’ve had a camera. My father had a camera, and he gave my brother one and me one. I wanted to be a photographer but didn’t have the courage to do it. When I lived in San Francisco, I audited a class in photography and I really wanted to do that, but I didn’t do it. I was literally living on the streets of San Francisco … I didn’t know that I was an artist. it was really only when I went to California. And then I got depressed, and when I painted a six foot rainbow on my kitchen wall, I said: ​“that’s it.” But you can’t live on freelance. You can’t. Friends had been asking me to do photography, and that’s when I started doing it.

Independent: And how did you get involved in A&I?

Rosenthal: I volunteered. I went and talked to Bitsie Clark. Bitsie said “well, why don’t you volunteer for the festival?” I think it was the second year. I volunteered for a year, and then they hired me the next year, and one or two years after that. Then Mary Miller came and I did not work with them at all. And then the last eight or nine years, I’ve worked for it. I’ve done a lot of work for nonprofits, but the festival — that’s my commitment to the arts and to New Haven. One thing I love is that it brings out the diverse groups in New Haven and puts them all together on the Green and in other places. It’s intellectually and spiritually and physically, bodily exciting ... and it gives people an opportunity to participate. I like when there’s a lot of inclusion.

Independent: I wonder if you can talk about how the festival has changed.

Rosenthal: Each weekend used to have a theme, and you would see the difference in the audiences … to whom it would appeal. But the variety of ages, the diversity of ages … It used to be that Arts on the Edge was part of the festival. Orange Street was closed off and it was alive with every part of New Haven. You got to know your city. And then when Mary Lou [Aleskie] came, you had the Village of Villages. Science experiments, a lot of hands-on stuff on the upper Green. [In 1999] there was a camera gargantua done by the photo arts collective. There used to be a lot more street performers, and that was so exciting. They were amazing. That’s a loss … these people really engaged with the audience.

And then there was Ideat Village. They were there for a lot of years. I don’t know whether there’s not the energy for it or the space for it, but I thought they had a contribution as well, because it was an alternative to the festival where people didn’t have to pay for things and more locals were involved. When there’s artistic expression, even when it’s contrapuntal, it opens up a conversation. They opened up a conversation.

Independent: And what have you loved in there?

Rosenthal: The first year that I remember Angelique Kidjo here, she got the kids up on the stage dancing with her, and you could just feel the love and the appreciation that she had for those little ones. The people who really have gotten engaged — you have Liz Lerman, her residency here was extraordinary. People of all ages and ethnicities and disabilities participated and danced, and they did stuff with prayer. I also love when the Latino people come, because for me I see the care that the families have and the pride that they have in their home country, and I have often gotten photographs of people with their home country’s flag. Last year, there was one with a picture of Barack Obama and a sign that said no uno mas. Not one more deportation. So the festival has historically been a voice … a place where people can be public about opinions and ideas.

Also, the big read, where there were tents on the Green and all the people were reading the same book. And the dancing on the Green! That’s one of the other things that’s fabulous. People move … if somebody needs a partner, somebody will show up and just dance with them. It’s a great equalizer.

Independent: What about the naysayers who say that the festival is made up of too many one-offs that aren’t invested in the community?

Rosenthal: For me, I don’t travel to New York to see things, so it’s an opportunity to be exposed to things that I would not otherwise have the opportunity to see. I can understand that I’m going to see something once and not see it again, but I will have had the knowledge. Nothing’s going to meet everybody’s needs. But to have free summer concerts three weekends in a row? I think that’s pretty terrific. As a photographer, what I see is the variety of people … and I feel like that’s a good thing. I feel like it has value for New Haven. It does bring people in during the summer months when Yale is not here … and I see a welcoming community.

But it’s different in these last years because the upper Green isn’t used. There used to be all these free things that kids could do, that people could do, to participate.

Independent: How has your A&I work changed? How has it changed you?

Rosenthal: I have to look with many kinds of eyes. I have to look wide, detailed — who is there, and get a representative cross section of who comes to what events. Diversity between and among events. I don’t have to capture every single aspect of the festival, and I’ve started looking for the differences. There’s always something new going on and I look for the newness.

Independent: So you position yourself in creative ways?

Rosenthal: I do! I get on top of buildings…. Some people call me cat woman because of the way that I move around, and I try to be invisible and very welcoming to people. I’m looking for beauty, and beauty can be the cracks in the road. I’m receiving what is around me and then photographing. 

Independent: Do you feel like it’s pushed you to develop?

Rosenthal: Yes, absolutely. It’s given me opportunities to think about things in a lot of different ways, from many different vantage points. I make mistakes, and that’s where I grow too.

Independent: Is there anything you would change, then, as both a local and a photographer?

Rosenthal: Yeah, there are a few things I would consider. I’d like to see more ​“sliding scale” tickets to some of the ticketed performances … maybe somebody could say ​“okay, I’m going to give twenty tickets to this performance for that kind of audience.” I would looove more street performers who really engage with audiences. There are so many places I think the festival does a great job and they are very welcoming. Maybe expand on some of the innovative programs … you’ve got so much innovation around New Haven. How would we show some of that experimentation?