Longboater seizes the moment through photography

For Sharon Burde, photography is about seizing the moment.

The Bayport Beach and Tennis Club resident has been snapping photos since her college days. But even before that, certain images led to her appreciation of the craft.

On countless occasions, photographs have helped Burde recall memories she wouldn’t have otherwise. Burde’s grandfather died before she was born, but she learned about him through photographs. In another instance, Burde remembers V-J Day, Aug. 14, 1945, because someone, she assumes her father, snapped a photo of her, and to this day she remembers what she was wearing and what the weather was like on that historic day.

“I think that was part of what intrigued me,” she said, “that it was a way of capturing and transmitting history.”

Transmit history it does. When Burde’s son was young, he stared at an old family photo and pointed at a young girl in the picture and asked who it was. It was his grandmother, whom he happened to closely resemble. He turned to Burde and said, “Now I know I’m not adopted.”

For Burde, photography is a way of preserving moments. She photographs light, shadow, reflection and time.

“I follow things photographically so that I’m recording time through the changes in the photographs,” she said.

Burde has published one book of photos. The subjects are the Longboat Key eagles that lived at Bayport before relocating. Burde took the photos over several years as she followed the eagles, capturing small moments in their lives.

“They moved to a street close to the Publix where they are less accessible and not just a couple steps away from my door. So it was the confluence of their being here and accessible that made this possible,” she said. “So out of the thousands of images I took, there came a book.”

Her photos are on display at Art Center Sarasota until Friday, Jan. 13 in the “Reflections” juried exhibit. Through the exhibit, local artists can submit their work, and if their piece is chosen, it will appear in an upcoming exhibit. Typically, the Art Center receives 250 to 300 submissions for its juried exhibits, and chooses about 130 to 150 to showcase, said Sarah Valdez, exhibitions and marketing coordinator.

One of her photos, “Looking In, Looking Out, Looking Ahead” is of a building being renovated in New York. Burde said that like photographing children, photographing construction is a way of measuring progress.

“It’s a moment of transformation,” she said. “It’s a work in progress. I often photograph works in progress and construction projects because they change all the time, and what’s there one day changes the next day. While it’s a work in progress, it’s constantly changing until it’s complete.”

Sometimes, the lapses in time she captures aren’t always progressive. Sometimes, the subjects are regressing, like the dying cactus she photographs at her cousin’s home in Tucson, Ariz.

“It’s capturing beauty,” she said. “It’s capturing an event. It may not be beautiful. It might be horrific, but it’s capturing the moment.”

Photography is an open realm. Burde said the wonderful thing about photography is that it’s appropriate for every stage of life. When people photograph, they are capturing varying perspectives on their subjects.

“Anybody can be a photographer,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a way to capture the moment. But it’s also a way to relate to people, to see people differently because sometimes one takes a photograph and doesn’t realize how much content there is until it’s printed or enlarged.”