Join the Visual Art League of Lewisville for its monthly general meeting at Lewisville Grand Theater.
Each month in conjunction with the general meeting, VAL produces an “Art Talk” series of known speakers and art demonstrations that are free and open to the public. This month, attendees will hear photographer Norm Diamond speak on “How I Got Here.”
Photographers’ experiences in life often determine how and what they photograph. At least, that is what happened to Norm Diamond. He will talk about the people and events that influenced him, including his family, his career as an interventional radiologist and how retirement enabled him to put his life in perspective and become a photographer.
Norm Diamond never thought of becoming a photographer until he photographed a memorial site in Paris in 1979 that led to a museum showing. For the next 35 years, his family and career as an interventional radiologist required most of his time and energy. In his early sixties, Diamond began taking workshops with several great teachers, and knew that photography would become his career after retirement.
Themes of memory, loss, and mortality captivated him from the very beginning. In his first major project, Diamond photographed the sadness, irony, and humor he found at hundreds of Dallas estate sales, where the possessions left by one generation are sold to the next. What Is Left Behind – Stories from Estate Sales became a monograph published by Daylight Books in 2017.
In Doug’s Gym, he chronicled the last six months of a dilapidated, yet somehow beautiful old gym. The physical decay intrigued him as did its octogenarian owner, Doug Eidd, a character from a bygone era. German publisher Kehrer Verlag published Doug’s Gym: The Last of Its Kind in February 2020.
Diamond’s work has been shown in several solo exhibitions and multiple group shows. Based on his two projects and a work-in-progress, Dark Windows, he was a finalist in the Photolucida Critical Mass competitions of 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023. The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas acquired his photographs of the city’s 50-year anniversary of the JFK assassination.
To reach The Grand from I-35E, take exit 452 and proceed east on Main Street to Charles Street. The Grand will be on the left. Free public parking is available along Main and Church streets, or at Lewisville City Hall. For details about upcoming events, or rental information for the facility, please visit lewisvillegrand.com or call 972.219.8446.
