EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: The life behind the lens

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Let’s talk EXTRAORDINARY. President Bill Clinton, singer Carly Simon, actor Paul Newman, actor James Earl Jones, our military men and women….it’s hard to count how many folks he’s met. So many moments, of so many people, have been captured by Brownie Harris. He’s our Extraordinary Person of the Week with his extraordinary ‘Life behind the lens’.

A picture of Sophia Loren is projected, with many others, on a white wall of a gallery in Downtown Wilmington.
It’s one of many fascinating moments that tell their tales at a special exhibit.
You see, Brownie Harris knows a thing or two about life behind the lens. “You get good photographs from a person who feels comfortable with you,” Harris told Daniel Seamans.

Comfortable, like in this candid shot of John F. Kennedy, Jr. “I said, you don’t have to do anything,” Harris said of the picture of JFK, Jr. “It’s not like going to the dentist, and he(JFK) laughed. You don’t see a lot of photographs of him laughing.”

This Wilmington-based photographer has spent more than 40 years traveling the world and documenting these ‘moments’.

Moments of Carly Simon.
And of David Brinkley who grew up Wilmington.
He’s photographed Andy Rooney. “Funny guy, that’s all I have to say,” laughed Harris as he pointed to the picture.
“This is Andy Warhol,” Harris said of the colorful picture of Warhol. “He didn’t say one word during the shoot, so I made him turn the chair around to look like he was in his own prison, which he really was.”

Seen here taking a picture of his mom, the fascination with photography started early.
By his 20’s, Harris was on the move. “When I was 22,” Harris said, “I went to to new york city with $200 and I was a taxi cab driver for a couple months.”

A few odd jobs later, Harris would land a job as a graphic designer. Soon after, he would create a photography department at a public tv station. Now, his resume includes everything from industry work to portraits.

“This is Miles Davis,” Harris said pointing at the storytelling picture, “For Marie Claire magazine out of France, shot in D.C. See the blister of his lip from the trumpet.”

Some of his best is on public display at the Wilma W. Daniels Gallery on the Cape Fear Community College campus.

You can see his view….
“This is about 1976 or 77,” he said of the New York City photo from a helicopter, “about 3 years after the World Trade Centers were built.”
…through your own.

“Just keep shooting,” Harris suggested to anyone with an eye for the camera. “Do what you love to do, shoot what you love to do.”

Extraordinary words from the ‘extraordinary’ Brownie Harris.

You can see some of his best work at the Wilma W. Daniels Gallery on the CFCC campus at 200 Hanover Street.
The solo exhibition, ‘Brownie Harris: A 45 Year Retrospective’, is open to the public the following dates:
*January 23-March 13th
*Tuesdays-Thursdays 12-5pm and Fridays 12-3:30pm
*Closing reception: Friday, Feb 27th, 6-9pm

Open to the public: (910)362-7252

Brownie’s website: www.brownieharris.com
*******
If you know someone extraordinary, I’d love to tell their story….email me at dseamans@wwaytv3.com
-Daniel