ORANGE — Mitchell R. Grosky loves to bring along his camera when he travels. He’s been doing it for years. And he can’t wait to show you the slides.
The longtime Athol resident has a photographic exhibition on display at Stage on Main through June. People can stop by 17 South Main St. in Orange to view “Globetrotting: Canvassing The World With Photographer Mitchell R. Grosky” from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Grosky said the exhibition’s objective is “to show people what’s out there.”
“The American Dream is rightly lauded as something we should all aspire to,” he said, elaborating that individuals’ dreams can manifest in different forms centering around family and the home. “I hope that people see those in the faces of some of the people I have photographed and … see not how we different are, but the similarities we have.”
A special artist’s reception is slated for 2 to 5 p.m. on March 6, with Grosky on hand to showcase a select sample of his work.
“I am trying to depict a scene between what I see with my eyes … and what I feel in my heart,” he said of his photography. Admission is free, though masks will be required.
Much of his exhibition, and his work in general, focuses on travel — including recent trips to Israel, Jordan, China and Hawaii, as well a number of earlier trips to Europe. The photographs include images of people, wildlife, and stunning landscapes. In 2008, he retired as an elementary school teacher and principal in a decades-long career that included time at Riverbend and Athol Regional Middle schools and took the opportunity to see the world with his wife, Anne, a retired middle school English and special needs teacher who is also a consultant in experience-based learning. The two started traveling New England and then graduated to cruising and exploring the Caribbean.
“That gave us a desire to spread our wings,” Grosky explained.
He and his wife eventually took an Alaskan cruise and then began cruising the Mediterranean, visiting 20 to 25 European nations, though most only for a day or two. They eventually took a “once-in-a-lifetime” photo safari tour of Tanzania and Kenya, where they stayed in beautiful hotels at night and explored the African savanna open-air all-terrain vehicles during the day. Grosky said he returned home from that trip with 15,000 photographs.
“It was the fact that around every turn were absolutely extraordinary opportunities for photography, for photographing incredible landscapes,” he said. “Traveling is addictive.”
Grosky, 70, said they were in China until Nov. 10, 2019, mere weeks before the first case of the novel coronavirus was detected in the Hubei province.
“We just missed it,” he said about the trip that started in Beijing and ended in Shanghai. “But that was an absolutely fantastic tour as well.”
Denise Andrews, Stage on Main’ project manager, said she has known Grosky since she and her wife, Candi Fetzer, moved back to Orange in 2009. She said she helped Grosky hang his art at 17 South Main St.
“Within his photography is a glimpse into humanity and a global family,” she said.
Andrews said she has traveled to 22 countries and mentioned that Grosky’s images from China (where she has visited five times) are a great example of highlighting a beautiful country in critical need of improvement. She said all nations have virtues and vices. Andrews said she also marvels at the photographs from Europe, specifically of the Eiffel Tower, which miraculously survived the brutality and devastation of two world wars waged with three decades of each other.
Stage on Main is a volunteer-driven, donation-based project with a marketplace. Andrew said the goal was to create an arts space so accessible no parent would be forced to tell their child, “Sorry, honey, I can’t take you to that.”
Grosky mentioned he has been interested in photography most of his life. His father was a professional in the trade and, though he focused on portraits photography, instilled in his son a love of capturing a moment in time. During his education career, he always enjoyed taking photos of students on various trips, though he began taking the art form much more seriously— and getting paid for it — in about 2005, when he started taking workshops and working weddings and other events.
He explained he received his first gallery wrap canvas, which stretches the fabric over the frame, to showcase a Croatian seascape and people asked if it was a photograph or a painting.
“And I thought the same thing,” Grosky said. “I was astounded by the clarity but also by the way the colors were able to be displayed.”
Grosky’s photographs can be found on various websites, including www.mrgroskyphoto.com, which features nearly 1,500 landscape and travel photographs for purchase in 25 different categories. For additional photographic gallery wrapped canvases, framed photography, or photographic products by Grosky, visit rdbl.co/3IB2RcU or bit.ly/3IDZmSY. Grosky also maintains a Facebook page.