Glenn McCurdy

Challenged and inspired by the brilliant images of French master Henri Cartier-Bresson while working for the Paris Herald Tribune in the 1960s, Glenn McCurdy's free-lance photography from Europe soon began appearing on magazine covers all over America. These early photos were used to illustrate the freelance articles he wrote, articles that focused on a variety of subjects including the dropout 'generation' in France, European conmen who prey on tourists and the bizarre life of a Latin lover in Rome.
Bresson's images underscore the power of a single image, captured at a critical moment. With this in mind McCurdy began to approach his craft with much more care. Limited funds, even when developing his own film, kept him to only 10 or 12 exposures each day using a medium format twin-lense Rolliflex. With every picture he tried to capture the right moment, with the best lighting and composition....frequently waiting hours for the existingl light to fully establish each scene, like classic paintings in the Louvre. Given these ingredients, the challenge became... would the results match his expectations, would they touch the heart and/or mind of an uninvolved observer?
He returned to the states from Europe as an established freelance writer-photographer. Then began a career in film for ABC televison in Philadelphia. He was hired as a writer, director and producer based upon published writing samples and his still photography credits. The influence of Bresson continued to be a major influence, but now through the lenses of various 16mm movie cameras at 24 frames a second. During the 1970s, working with cutting-edge cameramen like Bill Dupertuis and Mike Bucher, the unit invented certain special effects like high-speed slow motion and subjective rides using retrofited World War II 'gun' cameras. As a result six of his ABC documentaries won Golden Globe awards. Two films, 'Heavyweight Incorporated' a top rated primetime hour show on heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, and ''Winning on My Mind' which focused on the world of amateur auto racing, were acclaimed as 'best so far' in their specific sports, by Sports Illustrated and Car & Driver magazines. During these years in film-making he had the honor of working with three fascinating Academy Award winners: Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and Jack Palance.
Eventually he left ABC and formed his own multi-media film company, Moments in Time. He also kept taking cover photos and writing for a variety of clients including almost every newspaper (weekly or daily) and magazine in the Philadelphia area. Several of these features, including one on the Beatles and another on a unique Ginness record-setting cyclist (wrong-way Wooten) won top honors in the annual Keystone Press competition.
A philosophy major at Haverford College, he returned there in the 1970s as an associate professor in fine arts, building the college's first professional darkroom and teaching courses in both photography and film-making. While building a passive solar 2nd home in N. Cape May during the 1990s he added a select collection of Delaware Bay sunsets to his lifetime collection of photographs.. Today he lives in Elkins Park, Pa. and is married to Deborah, a retired teacher, ceramic artist and distance runner. They have three grown children and five grandchildren. After years of training they both qualified for and finished the Boston Marathon in under 3:30 before graduating to medium tri-athlons..




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