Lotte Jacobi

Art collections, by their very nature, are a product of curation, guided by the interests, vision and aesthetics of the collector. Steve Halpert’s vision seems mostly guided by his interest in the human condition. We find elements of this in all the images that he chooses. It is present in the city photographs of Todd Webb, the street shots of Berenice Abbott and Eugene Atget, the photographs of Native Americans by Edward Curtis and the many portraits by Arnold Newman, Lotte Jacobi, George Daniell, and many others. Even in some of the photographs that at first sight start out with an abstract composition and where we don’t find people in the picture, such as the library shot by Abelardo Morrell, the funeral table setting by Denise Froehlich or the photograph by Tanja Hollander titled, “Where Noah was sleeping,” the human element is still very present. The photographs by Judy Glickman, Ed Richardson, Robert Pennington and Dan Dow are addressing humanity as well. 

The task of the curator, when assembling an exhibit of an art collection, is mostly to find and illustrate the narratives that runs through it, and tell the story of how or why they came to be acquired. Steve told me that he never started to collect photographs with the purpose of building a collection. The Steve and Judy Halpert collection happened very differently… Intuitively. Steve slowly accumulated works that he liked, and after a while it became clear to him that he indeed had a collection. The only reason a piece was added was because he liked it, and it seemed to fit his aesthetic sensibilities.  While viewing this exhibition and investigating the collection, we get to know about Steve Halpert’s taste, his interests, and see the gems that randomly and spontaneously caught his eye.  It is this organic path that gives the exhibition of this assemblage its strength. To curate this excellent collection has been very interesting and a great privilege.  - Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest

About Steve Halpert

Steve Halpert grew up in Portland Maine. After attending Deering High School he went to Brown University where he earned his BA in English Literature. He then went on to Harvard University to get a Masters degree in teaching. In Portland he found himself back at Deering High where he taught for the next two years. In 1956 he married Judy Venner, whom he had known even before high school. He left Deering High school to embark on a career at Westbrook College (now the University of New England) as well as the University of Maine and the Portland School of Art, which is now the Maine College of Art, teaching literature, English, film, writing and art. Because of his passion for photography he started to organize exhibits of photography at the designated gallery space at the college called the “Alexander Hall Gallery.” He knew many of the photographers he exhibited and formed longtime friendships with Todd Webb and Berenice Abbott. He showed well known photographers such as Abbott and Webb, also notable photographers like Lotte Jacobi, Eugene Atget and Kosti Ruohomaa. He also showed many other local photographers from Maine. While organizing these exhibits and because, in the early seventies, photography was still in the dark, many photographers, happy they got a chance to exhibit their work, would donate a piece to the gallery. In that way and almost without design, the photo collection at UNE got started. Parallel to this collection Steve’s private collection gradually started to develop.

Meanwhile, starting in 1980 and running all the way through to 2009, Steve and Judy ran the movie theater on Exchange Street known as: ”The Movies on Exchange”. The theater provided movie lovers with foreign movies, art and independent movies and documentaries. The Movies on Exchange was like a breath of fresh air providing the public with a way to escape the regular Hollywood blockbuster fare of movies that were presented by the mainstream movie theaters. The Movies was a family business and Steve and Judy often had their children helping out running the place.

After the merger of Westbrook College and the University of New England (1996) the Payson collection was no longer in the what is now known as the “Art Gallery at UNE” (formerly the Payson Gallery). The famous Van Gogh’s Irises was auctioned off. Anne Zill became director of the gallery in 1998 and Steve started to curate his photography exhibits at this gallery. Since then some of the most important photography exhibits in Maine have been organized here under Steve’s curatorial direction. In 2016 a significant grant by Judy Glickman Lauder enabled  an architectural improvement to the gallery but part of the money was also donated for the expansion of the photo collection at UNE. At that time the collection was named   “The Stephen K. Halpert Photography Collection at UNE” in honor of Steve’s work.

Abelardo Morrell

Sean Alonzo Harris

Todd WebB

Todd Webb, Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, New York, 1946, Silver prints, 13 x 17 inches

Arnold Newman

Denise Froehlich

Edward Curtis

Bernice Abbott

Eugene Atget

George Daniels

Tonya Hollander

Tanja Hollander, When Noah was sleeping, 1999, C Print, 19 x 19 inches