Depending on who you ask, Mashpee resident Paul Rifkin could be considered the Cape and Islands' unofficial photographer. You may have seen his photos in the Enterprise, the Boston Globe, or the New Yorker.
This year, Rifkin is serving as Falmouth Academy's artist in residence.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Rifkin to learn more about his photography.
Gilda Geist Where are you from and how did you come to Cape Cod?
Paul Rifkin I was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942. And then I traipsed around and traveled a lot. And finally I ended up on the Cape about 45 years ago. I got a job in Ptown [Provincetown] as a physician's assistant, which was a profession that I finally ended up not enjoying at all. And now I live in Mashpee Commons.
GG How and when in your life did you get into photography?
PR That was very early. I got a Polaroid when I was about seven, and I got Brownie movie camera when I was about 10, and I've been taking pictures ever since. I was born with very few gifts. One of them was that I can see. People always say, 'Well, what kind of camera?,'—this or that—all of that is really beside the point, if you can see. So for me, taking pictures is a magical thing, because it really doesn't matter whether it's a nature thing or a person thing. If I see what's interesting and different about that, I just have this innate ability to be able to gather it in without really knowing the first thing about f-stops or apertures.
GG I read in the Enterprise that you take photos exclusively on iPhone. Can you tell me more about that?
PR I take my pictures really through my personality. I can engage people because I'm kind of a quirky, unafraid, unabashed curmudgeon at this point. I started off Jewish. I've moved into curmudgeon since I've turned 80. So rather than, like, know anything about how to take a picture, I just pick my iPhone up, I present it to the situation. If it's an animal, they usually just stand and smile at me. If it's a person, sometimes that, but I always can make them engage one way or another, and that's my technique. And I have a friend with a helicopter, so I have lot of really special photographs that most people don't have the ability to get. In the helicopter, sometimes I just put the iPhone up to the window and snap and stuff, and sometimes I don't even realize what I have until I get home. Put it in the computer and I go, oh my God, that's a whale eating through this gigantic pod of fish, which makes the whale look like a guppy. So did I take that picture? I've sold the picture, and I do accept the money for the picture, but I don't take credit for it. I give all credit to some force much bigger than myself.
GG Now, getting into your artist residency at Falmouth Academy, I understand this was also a collaboration with the Falmouth Cultural Council. So, how did this whole thing come together?
PR Seeking legacy, if you will—I don't have any kids or grandkids—I gathered a whole lot of my aerials. I figured that's my most special thing. I've been taking pictures from my friend's helicopter for 12 years now. And I have hundreds of pictures from every town on the Cape and the Islands. I put them together and I brought them to Alice Kociemba, who's the chairperson of the Falmouth Cultural Council. Alice is one of the most wonderful people that I've ever met. She loved the photos. She brought them to George Scharr, who's the head of Falmouth Academy art and music. Everybody loves George. If George were Jewish, he would be a mensch. I don't know whether he's Jewish or not, but George liked the pictures and the two of them came up with an idea and they went to speak with Hope Allison, who's a photography teacher at the school. And a concept was developed to bring art and bring a mentor—that would be me—into the school. And I was given the title "artist in residence," if you can imagine. It's kind of highfalutin for a guy who walks around in, like, sweatpants all the time. But I take it, I appreciate it. So what we decided to do was have me come to the school, and I gave a talk about how I have employed photography in my activism. I've been a political social activist for most of my life. So I've been going into Hope's classes and sharing whatever my wisdoms and pictures are with her students. We're going to be blowing up 22 photos that the students are helping us select. This is the part that I love the most, is it's truly collaborative, bringing it into the school, and working with the students, and so they're looking at the pictures and criticizing them and loving them. Two of them are going to be be auctioned off at a school fundraiser. The other 20 are going to go on display at Falmouth Academy during the fall semester.
