In 1960s Brockport, it would have been common to see Helen Simpson sitting in the Market Street doorway of Phillips Studio, painting at a canvas. She reflects today, “I needed available light, so where Bittersweet is, on Market Street, was a door where I would take my paintings and I’d paint, and I’d have little kids stop to watch me.” While this was one facet of Helen’s art, she also served as a community photographer.
For almost fifty years, Helen photographed residents of Brockport, from signature sessions of mothers with their newborns, to portraits capturing the everyday beauty of her subjects, including family portraits, senior photos, and bridal sessions. She often created oil paintings of photographs she took or from earlier photographs, as she did with several SUNY Brockport Presidents. Helen also worked with students and faculty on Saga, SUNY Brockport’s yearbook that ran from 1929-1996, and she included portraits of enrolled students.
Helen’s career began in 1959, working with her brother and husband, learning through trial and error at Phillips Studio, the present-day Bittersweet. She worked with 4×5 sheet film, processed in a darkroom, where she’d clip photographs to clothesline. “I loved to print and work with my hands,” she says of her work in the darkroom. Helen laughs, sharing the story of how she was in the darkroom even when she went into labor with her youngest daughter.
Helen includes bridal sessions among her favorite projects and loves how over time, she would photograph a bride, the bride’s children, and even their grandchildren. Community members share several portraits Helen took on the Remembering Brockport FB group. Some of us might remember wandering down Main Street from the 1960s through 2000s, admiring portraits Helen shared with the community through her storefront window…