Though raised in Kingsport, Tennessee, Jeff Halsey has deep roots in the Blue Ridge (5th Great-Grandfather, Moses Halsey, came to the area just after the American Revolution). Jeff and his family were able to move here in 2003.
Jeff's father, Ron Halsey, was raised near Mouth of Wilson on the river and after graduating from Virginia-Carolina, met his future wife, Eloise, at Berea College. Ron's uncle, Merle Cornett, from Comer's Rock, got him started in photography and printing. They worked together in Roanoke and eventually Ron went to Kingsport and rose to head the Camera Department at Kingsport Press.
Jeff- "We even had a small print shop in our basement in Kingsport. Dad and my mom's brother printed church bulletins and memo pads on an ancient, 1-color multilith, as a hobby. There were lots of nights I fell asleep to the chikita-chikita "lullaby" of that press.
"I was interested in photography, so naturally after school I went to work with Dad in Kansas City, where he was, by then, working for a company that made step and repeat cameras. I met my wife, Sharon, there and we had two kids- Claire who works with us now, and Jeremy who is going to grad school in Norfolk at Old Dominion. We left in 1988 and Dad founded Imaging Specialists in Greensboro. ISI was a pre-press trade shop serving the printing industry until the desktop publishing revolution made our cameras obsolete.
"This is actually the first house we've ever had without a darkroom. Now everything is digital and I use Photoshop instead of an enlarger. When my great-uncle Merle came to visit, he would just shake his head. I'd tell him we still use the same ideas, contrast, saturation, etc. and that he would understand a lot more than he thought he would.
"Merle and my Dad are the only two critics I think I ever really paid any attention to."
Jeff's photographic prints of the region are on sale all summer.
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