Interview With Award Winning Photographer Barbara Todd

Tell us about your journey to becoming a fine art photographer.

I have always taken photographs but in 2011 or so I was contacted by local hotelier Karen Rudowski of the Roosevelt Inn in Hyde Park, who wanted to hang my work in her hotel. I had never framed my work before but I decided to accept the challenge. She introduced me to local artists Elizabeth St. Leger and Marilyn Grieco, who wanted to start an art center to provide an art and music venue to the local community. I began meeting other artists, participating in shows, even having solo shows. At my first solo show the famous photographer Billy Name bought my View from the Walkway. My interests have evolved from landscapes to include abstraction, reflections and refractions and distortions, and black & white imagery. I also enjoy candid street photography, macros and experiment with digital art.

I have been fortunate enough to be included in a number of juried shows and I was the first photographer to be featured in the Poughkeepsie Common Council Chambers in a program begun by Linda Marston-Reid, former Executive Director of Arts Mid-Hudson. My art collective has earned Best of the Hudson Valley in Hudson Valley Magazine’s annual context in two categories in past years.

You are a founder and currently Vice President of Artists' Collective of Hyde Park (ACHP) (blog entries). Tell us about this organization.

ACHP has always been a group effort and a labor of love for those of us who got together in the summer of 2012 and decided the Hyde Park community and its many visitors deserved a place where art and music could live and thrive. Marilyn Grieco, Elizabeth St. Leger and I met with the Town Supervisor, Aileen Rohr, who was enthusiastic and connected us with John Golden, a local legend then in his eighties who owned a number of properties in Hyde Park. He allowed us a pop-up space which we dove into fixing up to make it look presentable as a gallery. We have been there ever since. We started out with group shows by our members and an Open Mic. Soon we added a Paint & Sip, workshops and concerts by successful area musicians who gravitated to the comfortable feel of our Open Mic, as well as occasional fundraisers for worthy charities. Eventually we were able to become a non-profit and create a scholarship for graduating Franklin D. Roosevelt HS students that are continuing their education in art. We rely on income from our studio rentals, donations from arts supporters and a small percentage that we obtain from sales. We continue to develop new offerings year round as funds allow and recently added a drawing class on weekends.

You are on the Board of Directors of Arts Mid-Hudson. Tell us about this organization.

Arts Mid-Hudson is a wonderful organization that supports and nurtures the arts in the Mid-Hudson region via grants, art shows, mentoring and education for artists, networking opportunities and other things that help artists grow. Arts Mid-Hudson is a great place for a regional artist to start to learn about all aspects of their craft and their art as a business.

You are the Program Coordinator of Sustainable Hudson Valley Hudson Valley. Tell us about this organization.

Sustainable Hudson Valley is a regional nonprofit that's very effective at strategically effecting climate solutions projects that are scalable and reproducible, such as circular economy development, clean transportation planning, community resilience training, climate outreach and education and a lot more. The organization powerfully networks and partners strategically with many climate and sustainability related organizations in the Valley and beyond to leverage expertise, leadership and resources collaboratively, pursuing initiatives aligned with NY State's CLCPA emissions reduction goals and priorities. It publishes the annual Clean Power Guide through Chronogram, provides coordination support for over 60 Repair Cafés in the Valley, helps support New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management and drives Hudson Valley Climate Solutions Week each year with many partners' events.

You have been called a painterly photographer. Tell us about your reflections style which shows how pollution in the air reflects on the river, lakes and oceans of our world.

Reflections in images offer additional dimensions, a sense of indeterminate depth and sometimes deeper tones that lead us to look deeper into the image and find more space to be “in” and engage with it. So they're often part of my subject matter though I wouldn't say they're a style. No doubt the fact that some of my work is painterly has been influenced by the many artists I have known and who have inspired me. The Hudson River School of painters captured the same natural amber light special to the Valley back in the 19th century as I have often done; but since then the increase in particulate matter and the increasing frequency and intensity of storm events due to climate change have added haze, spectral shifts, and more spectacular sunsets especially during terrible forest fires.

Where have you exhibited your work?

I have extensively exhibited in the mid-Hudson and surrounding area, including solo art shows at Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, the Poughkeepsie Open Studios, Hyde Park Free Library Annex, the Hudson Valley News Network offices at the Dutchess County Airport (Interview here), Artists' Collective of Hyde Park, Queens Botanical Garden Climate Art Festival, the Poughkeepsie Common Council Chambers, NY State Assembly Member Didi Barrett's office and the Steinberg Symer & Platt Law Offices. I have also exhibited in many group shows, some juried, at Barrett Art Center, the Howland Center in Beacon, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Artists’ Collective of Hyde Park, the annual Art in the Loft show in Millbrook, NY, WomensWork.Art and the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center in Poughkeepsie, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Front Street Gallery in Patterson, NY among others.

The Hyde Park Free Library was established by Franklin D. Roosvelt’s father . Both Theodore and Franklin D. Roosvelt significantly impacted American environmental conservation, by playing vital roles in shaping the American environmental movement and leaving behind a legacy of conservation that continues to influence policy and public perception today. Tell us about your exhibition in this Library and what it meant to you personally.

As my family has deep roots in Hyde Park and my grandmother remembered encounters with FDR and Eleanor when she was young, it was a way of touching the past and feeling that connection. I spent a lot of time in that library as a child living down the street so there is a satisfaction in having shown my work there twice. I'm very glad to have grown up in the hometown of such freethinking, principled and determined leaders as FDR and Teddy Roosevelt. Though Teddy spent a lot of time shooting animals, which bothers me, he did do so much to set aside federal land for conservation and parks. And FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps and created many parks and wildlife preserves and oversaw a huge reforestation effort. The CCC was one of many programs he created to employ people and get us out of the Great Depression.

Tell us about your New York’s Lighthouses Exhibition with artist Semine Hazar at the National Lighthouse Museum from September 4 – December 13, 2025.

Award winning artists Semine Hazar and Barbara Todd will exhibit for the first time together to bring their art show “New York’s Lighthouses” to the National Lighthouse Museum from September 6 to December 13, 2025 to present Lighthouses of NY based on their unique but complimentary artistic styles and interpretations.

This art show celebrates Lighthouses of New York which are recognized landmarks with symbolic and aesthetic qualities including distinct architectural characteristics located in picturesque settings. Many of these lighthouses are now lovingly preserved and open to the public, evoking feelings of hope, guidance, resilience, and revival. Their depiction in Semine’s paintings and Barbara’s photography captures New York’s coastal landscapes and maritime history as once these lighthouses played a crucial role in the region's life, guiding ships and enabling trade and transportation. The exhibition highlights important aspects of the region's past and its adaptation to technological advances, with a strong connection to the Hudson River School, America's first art movement, which celebrated the beauty of New York and its surrounding landscapes that are an integral part of ongoing preservation efforts the National Lighthouse Museum is actively involved in.

For this exhibition Barbara presents the Hudson River Lighthouses series in her painterly style, capturing reflections in some as she likes how they add drama and dimensionality to these scenes. Her work explores and finds new beauty and directions in the light and shadow of the Hudson Valley which she adores.

NY's Lighthouses by Semine Hazar & Barbara Todds

“It's been a very rewarding experience shooting the lighthouses of the Hudson, both as a photographic challenge and a thrilling opportunity to bask in the beauty of the river and its wonders. For many years as a commuter to Manhattan, I rode the Hudson line and the view never failed to fascinate me in any kind of weather. It has been such a joy to explore places I had only whizzed by on a train until now. Through these photos, I hope to share the engagement of my senses with these historic and beautiful places.

My photography and my aesthetic sense have been deeply influenced by growing up in the Hudson River Valley, with its characteristic amber light captured by the Hudson River School artists in the mid-nineteenth century - and now impacted by the increasing particulate matter and weather effects associated with pollution and climate change. I have always felt that the river restores my inner peace and balance, and the lighthouses symbolize hope in these times. As the river rises, we shall see how they fare” explained Barbara Todd.

Anything else you would like to add.

During September HMVC art Gallery will publish a poster of my art show "NY's Lighthouses" on a Times Square Jumbotron to celebrate the UN General Assembly and Climate Week New York.

How can people reach you?

My website is barbaratodd.zenfolio.com and I can be contacted re: my photography at barbaratoddphoto@gmail.com.