By Ruth Melville

This photograph by Jim Jasper will be included in the book, “Norfolk Through a Lens” which will feature work of ten local photographers.

Residents of Norfolk are well aware, thanks to the Norfolk Artists & Friends annual exhibition and shows at the Norfolk Library, Infinity Bistro and Aija, that their town is home to many excellent photographers. A new book featuring the work of 10 local photographers will be published later this year, and this month, Pinacoteca, Mia Weiner’s fine art gallery in Bantam, will be offering a preview of the photographers’ work.

The book project has been conceived and brought to fruition by Anita Holmes, who is not only a photographer herself but also a writer, editor and book designer. Her original intention was to put together a book of her own photographs, but then she thought, “We have so many wonderful photographers in Norfolk.” She decided to ask others, mostly color photographers, to take part.

“This is not a travel book or a book about Norfolk architecture,” she says. “It is a book of artwork, fine art photography expressing the photographers’ visions of Norfolk.”

The book, entitled “Norfolk Though a Lens: Visions of a Quintessential New England Town,” will be published next fall, and the Norfolk Library is planning an exhibit for October. In the meantime, Norfolk resident Mia Weiner heard about the project. Pinacoteca had been closed for the winter, and Weiner thought a sampling of these photographers’ work—Holmes calls it “a prelude” to the book—would be perfect for the reopening of the gallery.

The Pinacoteca show, “Norfolk Photographs” (with “photographs” deliberately serving as both noun and verb), opens on April 15 and will be up until May 1. While the final photographs for the book have yet to be chosen, the photographers in the Bantam show are all from Norfolk: Jennifer Almquist, Peter Coffeen, Mahlon F. Craft, Bruce Frisch, Katherine Griswold, Holmes, Jim Jasper, Christopher Little, Babs Perkins and Rick Schatzberg. Their photographs, some of which will be in the book, will be on sale during the exhibition.

Two lectures, open to the public, accompany the exhibit. Denise Bethel, a renowned scholar of photography and affiliated for 24 years with Sotheby’s in New York, will speak on Sunday, April 24, at 3:30. Christopher Little’s talk, “Point of View: How Drone Photography Can Change Your Perspective,” will be on May 1, at 3:30.

For more information about the show, or to reserve seats for the talks, please contact MWeiner@Pinacoteca.US.