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Beauty Through A Lens: Close Up with Photographer Randi Childs and her 40/40 Project

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Randi in Milan, Italy
Photo by Sarah Edmunds

“I want women to step into their power.  They can do anything they want to do.”

In 2022, Chappaqua photographer Randi Childs sought to build upon the movement of women embracing the aging process, using her portrait skills to show women that no matter their age, they are beautiful. “Too many women over 40 feel invisible. I want to help change that and make a difference.”

Forty Over 40 (“40/40”) was born.

“I started this project because I wanted to give women an opportunity where they can see themselves through my lens and know that they’re beautiful,” Childs said. “Their age, weight, number of wrinkles, gray hair–none of that determines their self worth, value to society, or their beauty.”

Love of the Art

The mother of two grown daughters, Childs has always been enamored with photography and the ability to document life’s events and create memories. She sought out private lessons from fellow Chappaqua photographer Randy Matusow in 2012 and then “devoured” classes at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. Never intending to become a professional, she was simply indulging her passion, renting studio space in the city to practice photographing models and playing with lighting and styling “just for me,” she said.

Childs began experimenting with NYC street photography, seeking out interesting buildings, light, billboards, and people, approaching strangers saying she loved their vibe or what they were wearing. One encounter in Times Square was fortuitous; her subject published Turning Point lifestyle magazine, and soon thereafter invited Childs to contribute and eventually photograph Motown legends for a 50th Anniversary celebration issue. Other projects followed, including a Times Square Spotify billboard for a singer/songwriter she works with, and she expanded her repertoire to portraits, personal branding, headshots, maternity and fashion photography. Her international award-winning work has been featured everywhere from People Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar (Vietnam and Arabia editions) to photography publications.

Front Steps Project to Support Town Merchants

Childs opened a studio in Katonah in 2020, just weeks before the pandemic brought everything to a halt. With time on her hands, she offered to take family photographs ­– safely outdoors on their front steps – asking only that donations be made to help keep New Castle businesses afloat. She eventually partnered with the Chamber of Commerce’s Go Fund Me page to disburse the approximately $10,000 raised by photographing over 100 local families.

Helping Women Recognize Their Beauty

But it is Childs’ passion to photograph 40 women over the age of 40, last year and again in 2023, that has been empowering for both the photographer and her subjects. “It’s cliche,” Childs said, “but beauty really does come from within. This project is all about helping women ‘find their light’ and learn to be comfortable in their own skin.” Her warm and friendly personality sets her subjects at ease while giving them a platform to tell their stories, celebrating the fact that beauty does not diminish with age.

A 40/40 photo session includes a pre-shoot consultation regarding colors, styling and mood, access to her studio’s expansive couture wardrobe, professional hair and makeup, a “celebrity style” photoshoot, and, of course, the photos themselves. Childs prides herself on making her subjects feel relaxed, fully listening to their stories and documenting their feelings about being a woman over 40.

Debra Baron, one of Childs’ first  40/40 subjects, called it an “incredible experience… I felt completely outside my comfort zone, but after five minutes Randi created a comfortable setting and we had so much fun.”

“Women have cried during the sessions or when looking at the finished photos,” Childs recalled, becoming emotional describing a 64-year old woman and her 86-year old mom who experienced the day together, and a former Orthodox woman who themed her photoshoot “taking control of my life.” Ellyn Altman, at 81, one of Childs’ oldest subjects, saw someone in the photos who she had not seen in years.

“I wondered if the woman in every one of the beautiful photos could really be me,” Altman shared. “I thought that appearance was long gone. Randi is an artist; the results of the photo shoot was a wonderful reminder of who I have been and who I am.”

Last year’s 40/40 Project culminated in a gallery exhibition of all 43 portraits at Westport MoCa, which Childs plans to repeat in 2023. She was in awe seeing her subjects react to their own and each other’s photographs on display.

“It’s been transformational for me, watching these women step into their self-love.”

Visit randiover40.com and randichilds.com for more information.

Flourishing, Despite COVID: Musician & Consummate Artist Drew Bordeaux

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Drew and Tammy PHOTO By Donna Mueller

Drew Bordeaux recalls a time when the music scene in Northern Westchester and its environs was bustling. The Mount Kisco born and bred singer/songwriter who plays both guitar and violin would play upwards of 150 gigs a year at local venues including the now defunct Winston’s in Mount Kisco, Village Social in Mount Kisco and Lucy’s in Pleasantville. At these smaller venues, he enjoyed getting to know his fan base. But he also played larger venues in the tri-state area with some well-known musicians including Lauryn Hill, Boz Skaggs, KT Tunstall and the Gin Blossoms.

All this, in addition to holding down a job in his boutique digital marketing firm, Silver Rush Media, and doing fashion photo shoots and portraits of celebrities like actor Kiefer Sutherland, and musicians including Grace Potter, Ani DiFranco and Steve Earle. To say that he’s a Renaissance man is an understatement. And COVID hasn’t stopped him from creating and coming up with innovative solutions to continue his many creative pursuits albeit in new formats. 

PHOTO By Donna Mueller

A Musician at Heart 

The eloquent Harvard educated Bordeaux first fell in love with playing violin in first grade. He recalls many afternoons spent at the Westchester Conservatory of Music and Hoff-Barthelson Music School. Growing up blues music was a fixture in his household. “BB King was my first concert,” he recalls.

After picking up guitar and playing in some indie bands in college, he credits musicians such as John Mayer and Dave Matthews for influencing his music. He played at several Manhattan venues in the eponymous Bordeaux Group post college such as The Bitter End and the National Underground. The managers from those venues recommended him for several gigs which led to a jam-packed gig schedule “much to the chagrin of my friends and family,” notes Bordeaux. 

A Pandemic Pivot

But of course all of that came to a screeching halt in March of 2020 and with that Bordeaux’s gigs. In the beginning of the pandemic, he was literally itching to perform. “Every day felt like a year.” But after talking with his fellow creatives, he decided to experiment and try new platforms to perform. By April, he was performing from his Tarrytown home via Livestream. “This gave me the opportunity to be in pajamas one minute and performing the next.” 

Bordeaux used several of his Livestream performances to raise funds for causes near and dear to his heart such as MusiCares COVID-19 Relief, a Grammy created program to help music industry professionals during the pandemic and also a local beloved landmark, Tarrytown Music Hall. “It was great to have family and friends donate too to these causes who normally might not be able to see me perform.” 

A silver lining of the pandemic is that Bordeaux has had time to finally start working on an album which will be released this spring titled Impulse/Instinct. Bordeaux fans will be happy to hear him playing loop-based acoustic guitar a la Ed Sheeran. “If you’ve seen me perform, it won’t deviate too much from that.” He’s been busy researching platforms for him to release the album himself like Spotify.

He’s also found that the pandemic can actually be liberating for creatives like himself. “Now is the time that we can literally do anything–all preconceived notions about what would or wouldn’t work have gone out the window.” For instance, he has been doing virtual Zoom photo shoots. One photo shoot featuring local  Chappaqua fashion model Danielle Zinaich wound up in Vogue. 

Elevate20 Photography Project

Bordeaux also used his photography skills this past summer for a photo series project he titled Elevate20. Bordeaux’s wife Tammy started working at the Tribeca Film Festival about three weeks before the pandemic hit. They watched a Tribeca-produced documentary in partnership with MCM about the music and fashion scene in NYC together called “The Remix: Hip Hop x Fashion” and Bordeaux was instantly inspired by this amazing community of musicians and fashion designers.

“The Elevate20 series was the nexus of my photography with the Black Lives Matters movement,” he explained. Bordeaux posted to his Instagram this summer that he was looking to do pro bono photo shoots for 20 Black creatives. So for instance if a model needed to update his/her “look book” or a musician needed a new album cover, Bordeaux would photograph it. “I wanted to uplift people and do my best work for people of color. I met amazing musicians and designers through the project.” Photos from the series can be viewed on drewbordeaux.com.

Raising Awareness About Racial Inequality 

The subject of race also propelled him to write several essays on the topic after the George Floyd killing this past spring. “When the video came out, I didn’t want to watch it. I was cynical enough to know how it ends. But when I did see it, it was a turning point. 

I had friends calling me and asking me what they could do to help. My Facebook became a diary and chronicle of my thoughts and feelings about the social unrest that was happening and a way to have a dialogue with people [about race] at a time when I didn’t necessarily feel it was that safe to go out and protest.”

His social media feed and essays caught the attention of editors at Bedford & New Canaan Magazine and they approached him about becoming the arts/culture editor there as well as photographing for various stories. “Any chance I have to be creative this year, I’m like, let’s go,” he explained.

Obviously, Bordeaux has a lot on his plate but when he has downtime, he enjoys spending time at the Tarrytown Sleepy Hollow (TASH) farmers market of which his wife is co-president. With both in creative fields, they’ve had to pivot and rethink how to approach their jobs. “The Tribeca Film Festival this year is going to be this immersive and reimagined experience. I can’t wait,” he said.

Like all of us, Bordeaux is waiting for some sense of normalcy to resume. Once Covid is behind us, he wants to go to his favorite restaurant Mint in Tarrytown for brunch with his wife. “I just want to sit in our window seat and feel transported like you are in Europe.” He also wants to go to a rock concert. “That was one of the last things I did before the pandemic started and I remember standing there thinking this is the last time I am doing this for a while. I just want to feel the music wash over me again.” 

Inside the The Gordon Parks Foundation

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Gordon Parks, Untitled 1941
Credit: Photograph by Gordon Parks.
Copyright: Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.

  Making a Difference in the World to Overcome Bigotry, Poverty & Hatred

Nestled on Wheeler Avenue in Pleasantville are the exhibition space and offices of The Gordon Parks Foundation with its mission to permanently preserve the work of Gordon Parks, make it available to the public through exhibitions, books, and electronic media, and support artistic and educational activities that advance what Gordon described as “the common search for a better life and a better world.” The Foundation shines a light on the remarkable career of the iconic creative talent of Gordon Parks.

Parks was an extraordinary artist with an amazing range. His portraits were diverse, from socialites like Gloria Vanderbilt, civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. to sports figures like Muhammad Ali. “Gordon Parks used the power of art to make a difference in the world and to overcome bigotry, poverty and hatred,” says Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., the Executive Director of the Foundation. As a photojournalist, Parks captured the poverty and racism that affected Black America.

Breaking Barriers

“Gordon broke barriers as the first African American photographer to work at Life Magazine and worked closely with my grandfather Phil Kunhardt who was the managing editor,” says Kunhardt.

Gordon Parks (1912-2006), a multi-talented, modern-day Renaissance man, was born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas.  As an itinerant laborer, he worked as a brothel pianist and railcar porter among other jobs before buying a camera from a pawnshop, training himself to become a photographer. He also found success as a writer, composer and film director. “He was the first black filmmaker to direct a studio motion picture, and his first film Shaft helped create a genre. But Parks’ enduring contribution was to break down the barriers of racism in Hollywood,” writes Desa Philadelphia for the Directors Guild of America.

“At the core of The Gordon Parks Foundation’s work is the support of current and emerging leaders who carry on Parks’ legacy,” says Kunhardt who has led the foundation since 2011. During Kunhardt’s tenure the Foundation created The Gordon Parks Foundation Scholarships and Prizes program, and established The Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, which has awarded six fellowships to photographers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians whose work addresses themes of representation and social justice. In 2019, he oversaw the launch of The Gordon Parks Arts and Social Justice Fund dedicated to supporting these educational initiatives.

Gordon Parks, Untitled 1941
Credit: Photograph by Gordon Parks.
Copyright: Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.

Supporting the Next Generation of Artists Inspired by Parks

Each year the Foundation celebrates Gordon Parks’ legacy and honors those who continue his vision for social change at The Gordon Parks Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner and Auction. The Gordon Parks Foundation Award is given to individuals who have enriched our lives in ways that reflect Parks’ ideas and goals by using creative means to inspire the next generation. The Patron of the Arts Award recognizes and celebrates individuals with a deep appreciation of the arts. Recipients receive this special recognition for their support and promotion of artistic creativity in the visual arts, film, literature, or performing arts.

Kunhardt sums up the impact of the Foundation’s work. “Through initiatives such as our scholarship and fellowship programs, as well as these annual awards, we continue to empower the next generation of change-makers and those who are current forces for social justice and the arts.”

The exhibitions at The Gordon Parks Foundation space feature fellowship recipients, curated selections of Gordon Parks’ work, and works by artists whose work is influenced by Parks.

The Gordon Parks Foundation Honoree Chelsea Clinton accepts award from Sarah Lewis and Alex Soros at the annual Gala at Cipriani’s in New York, June 4, 2019. PHOTO BY SEAN ZANNI FOR PMC

I don’t think there has ever been a more important time in my life to support art and artists. They help prevent us from becoming complacent or numb to the challenges we face, while urgently illuminating those challenges. They show us what is possible when love and kindness, not hate and indecency, are celebrated and empowered. And they offer us hope, pushing us toward what Gordon called “the common search for a better life and a better world.
– Chelsea Clinton

Not to Be Missed Exhibits

Two upcoming exhibitions are Guadalupe Rosales’ Must’ve been a wake-dream: September 6 through October 18, 2019 and Hank Willis Thomas’: Exodusters October 25 through December 20, 2019.

Must’ve been a wake-dream is a celebration of Rosales’ work as a 2019 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship recipient, which includes collaborations with Latinx and LGBTQ communities to examine the interplay between photography and community. Through her careful collecting, preservation, and presentation of vernacular photographs, letters, party flyers and ephemera representing Latinx Southern California youth culture, Rosales creates an expanding archive that brings visibility to a community that has been overlooked, misrepresented and criminalized. Also on view during Must’ve been a wake-dream will be a group of Gordon Parks’ photographs, selected by Rosales, from Parks’ celebrated Harlem Gang Leader series, made as the first African-American photographer for LIFE magazine in 1948.

Hank Willis Thomas has an ongoing vested interest in photography as a documentation of history and a universal means for people to represent their stories. Exodusters examines the representation and depiction of history, particularly during a significant moment in the pursuit for freedom and liberty during the Great Depression in Dust Bowl America. Thomas draws upon the archive of Gordon Parks’ seminal and semi-autobiographical film The Learning Tree (1969) that depicts the fictional Cherokee Flats, which is based off of Parks’ hometown in Fort Scott, Kansas, where he returned to produce the movie.

The Gordon Parks Foundation welcomes visitors to view the rotating shows of photography in their exhibition space. Hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free.

For more information: gordonparksfoundation.org