Boston Professional Photographers Exhibition at the Clock Tower Gallery

Imagine being a bird souring above a cranberry bog. A harvester is corralling cranberries into a black pump at the Cranberry Harvest Celebration in Wareham, Mass., and from your vantage point, the man looks like a tiny shooting star whirling through the red swirls of Jupiter.

Photographs like the bog, by Charlie Mahoney, images of the giant red, white, and blue tarp-covered salt mounds in Chelsea that only a seagull could see, and scenes from above a hockey rink as the Boston College Eagle mascot zooms amongst celebratory debris, are compositions that can be seen at the Clock Tower Gallery’s Boston Professional Photographers Association (BPPA) Exhibition, opening in Feb.

“Photo essays tell a story,” says Joanne Hillman, Winthrop Cultural Council Chairman. “There is more than one image. It’s not something you see a lot anymore. It’s uncommon, so it’s a treat. I like the story-telling aspect of it.”

Curated by Guy Hillman, a Hunt’s Photo & Video Associate, the show will feature significant current event and sports stories shot by various press organization photographers, and will include winning entries by students of the New England School of Photography.

He got to know many of the BPPA photographers while working at a camera store in Cambridge, where he often rented equipment to the acclaimed news photographers. The BPPA offered to display the 2012 winners at the Clock Tower Gallery exclusively.

In “Mudders,” by Bill Greene, a young man is frozen mid-run, as if a copper statue. A ball is held in his fingertips, and he is drenched in mud. Muck splashes when a player falls; his brown limbs reaching up like the extra arms of a Buddhist goddess. They are part of teams from around New England who compete at the end of summer in a Mud Bowl football tournament in North Conway, NH.

“His work blows me away,” says Hillman. “I think he’s the best. It’s incredible.”

The Boston Professional Photographers Association exhibition, sponsored by Hunt’s Photo & Video, will be on display at the Clock Tower Gallery, at the EB Newton, Feb. 8-Mar. 1. An artist reception will be held Feb. 8, 2-5pm. The gallery is open Thursdays 6-8pm, and Saturdays 2-5pm.