Local business hosts reception for photographer Paul E. Perachi

[media-credit id=3 align=”aligncenter” width=”300″][/media-credit]LENOX – Looking into one of Paul E. Perachi’s photographs might transport you to the peaceful and serene setting of Onota Lake in Pittsfield.

Or you may zoom over to Italy and see houses perched on a hillside overlooking the sea or clothes drying on a line in front of an old building.

Images taken along the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Tuscany, or dozens of other Italian cities will transport you to those destinations where you will get pleasantly lost in mind-boggling beauty.

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(Photo by Paul Perachi)

Last weekend, Carlene Toole and Michael Vaber of Lenox Print and Mercantile, 11 Housatonic St., hosted a special reception to celebrate the new year and the “enticing photography” of Mr. Perachi.

He has numerous photographs for sale at the local business.

Just like the thousands of different photos he’s taken throughout the past five years or so, the talented photographer’s career has been filled with variety, too.

He spent 20 years as principal of Lenox High School before becoming Berkshire Juvenile Court Judge for 15 years, retiring in 2009.

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(Photo by Paul Perachi)

Judge Perachi said he always liked photography and dabbled in it when he was a college student. After marriage to his wife, Janet M. Perachi, and raising a son and a daughter, he got away from it, he said.

He got his first digital camera in 2007, the same year he traveled to Italy for the first time.

His father immigrated to the United States from Italy. When Judge Perachi went to the family patriarch’s native country, he traveled to Varsi Parma, the town where his father grew up.

He also found the centuries-old farmhouse where his father once lived. Situated on a mountain side, it was completely abandoned, the retired judge said. He connected with a cousin who lived nearby, however.

It was quite a trip for him and one he’ll never forget.

He’s been back to Italy several times since and will probably make more trips in the future.

“I love Italy,” he said, as people meandered in the narrow yet picturesque Lenox shop last weekend. “I like the old buildings.”

He also enjoys taking photos of barns, tractors, scenes in nature, birds, butterflies and lots of flowers.

He’ll be traveling to Florida this year and there’s no telling what photographs will result as he explores the Everglades!

A tall, rather soft-spoken and humble man, Judge Perachi loves talking about his craft, which he never really had in mind to make into a business.

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He said he bought a professional printer and learned how to matte and frame his photos. He gave some of them as gifts and people started asking if they could buy his photographs, he said.

When he retired from Berkshire Juvenile Court, his staff gave him a tent so he could start exhibiting his work at craft fairs.

“It’s been fun,” he said, with a big smile. “It’s a hobby.”

His job as judge was very “high profile,” he said. Taking photos is a “pleasant alternative.”

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(Photo by Paul Perachi)

“It’s really fabulous,” he said of his photography hobby. “It’s a labor of love. The whole process is a lot of fun.”

He exhibits at three shows in Lilac Park, an ethnic fair, a holiday show in Stockbridge and at Shaker Village, to name a few. In the summertime, the craft shows keep him very busy.

The best part of digital photography is one does not have to worry about film, Judge Perachi said.

Mrs. Perachi has also done some black and white photography as well as dark room work.

“She’s got a real good eye,” he said, and she occasionally suggests good photo possibilities to her husband.

Last year, the retired judge’s photography sessions took a temporary hit when he found out he had to have a quadruple bypass.

“I never felt that bad,” he recalled, except for having a funny feeling in his collar bone from time to time. Then he found out there was a 90 percent blockage in four of his arteries, he said.

After recuperating from the operation, which took place in Springfield, it was back to the camera lens.

Judge Perachi has a series of photos called “Berkshire Towns.” He’s gone into 23 area towns, taken hundreds of local photos and then created a kind of collage for each town. Usually a photo of the sign that tells a visitor what town is being entered is in the center of the photographic collage.

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(Photo by Paul Perachi)

Photographing scenes of the towns and the famous spots in each one is just something that appealed to him, he said. The series has been popular among both natives and tourists.

Judge Perachi has his picturesque photos for sale in several places including Karen Keenan’s Gift Shop in Lee, the Red Lion Inn Gift Shop in Stockbridge, New Berry Place in Pittsfield and Berkshire Emporium in North Adams.

Judge and Mrs. Perachi’s daughter, Sandra M. Perachi-Taylor, is a probation officer in Berkshire Superior Court. Their son, Matthew P. Perachi, is a school vice-principal and basketball coach in Connecticut.

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( Photo by Paul Perachi)

There are also five grandchildren.

The judge said there’s a quote that goes like this: “If children are the food of life, grandchildren are the dessert.”

He certainly appears to agree with that.

People came in and out of Lenox Print and Mercantile during last weekend’s reception, greeting the judge, commenting on his photos and asking about his travels

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The printing part of the business has been around for the past 22 years. Then, a couple years ago, Carlene Toole added a new component: retail space for artists.

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Ms. Toole and Mr. Vaber offered appetizers, too, including cheese, crackers, vegetables and wines of Italy.

Today, the work of at least 100 artists, from stunning jewelry, colorful cloth purses and paintings to scarves, other clothing items and, of course, photography, jam the small space from top to bottom.

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There’s even a piece of industrial art for sale – a huge rusty gear from a dam.

Exhibiting artists are from throughout the area as well as Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont

One visitor last weekend admired one of Judge  Perachi’s photos. It was of a hummingbird. The judge related the story of how it came to be.

He was in Texas and a woman was putting fruit into a tree for the bird. The hummer came for the smorgasbord.

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on January 24, 2013. Filed under Community Events,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry