Category Archives: Newsday

July 13, 2018 for Newsday

April 22, 2011 for Newsday

by Dianne Matus on October 8, 2009 for New York Newsday

by Carl Macgowan on December 26, 2004 for New York Newsday

Photographer Holly Gordon has visited the Galapagos Islands three times and is anxious to return. She loves taking pictures of wildlife on the equatorial islands 600 miles off the coast of South America.

“They’re all wonderfully interesting creatures, mostly because they evolved on their own with no interference from man,” Gordon said.

Her photographs of tortoises, iguanas, frigate birds and other critters are on display in a gallery of the new wing at the Hall of Science. Besides revealing the unique features of rare animales, the pictures appeal for protection of the islands and their inhabitants.

The former teacher from Bay Shore said one of the Galapagos’ most unique residents is a flightless cormorant: “It swims for its food. Food in the water was so abundant, it stopped flying.” But the bird can’t escape hungry dogs and cats. “Man introduced dogs and cats,” Gordon said. “What I try to do with my images . . . is to get people to be sensitive and heart-warming toward these creatures and be protective.”

Gordon said the 20 islands are “another world. Every island is different.”

by Caryn Eve Murray on January 26, 2003 for New York Newsday

Even in the dead of winter, Holly Gordon enjoys an endless springtime. That’s not because the photographer’s images evoke only spring and summer (they don’t). And not because she only visits warm-weather locales (she doesn’t). But because, having devoted her most recent years to photographing everything from a pinklupine landscape in New Zealand to Gardiner’s Park near her Bay Shore home, she is always entering a new seson in her life. “I am,” said Gordon, “constantly renewing myself.”

Taking Wing: Not unlike the butterflies she has photographed, which will be exhibited at the Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown this spring. Gordon underwent a transformation-from West Babylon art teacher to aspiring photo pro. In her work with natural subjects, she said, “I feel a sense of control, and I can call the shots and choose the angles and just focus in on an intimate vision of nature and me.”

Cold Comfort: Her ambition, as part of her global travels,is to photograph every species of her favorite animal: penguins. “They are so animated, so clumsy on land and so graceful in the water. They are just a riot.”

Easygoing Nature: Her husband, Saul, who died in 1996, was her greatest booster. Now the world’s creatures seem to ease her way: On a trip in 2000, she said, “Koala bears came out of the trees for me to photograph, and my guide couldn’t believe it.” In Costa Rica, a blue morpho butterfly landed on her camera after she’d fed it mashed bananas mixed with beer. “And they’re not known to be friendly.”

Eagle Eye: The day she saw bald eagles mating, she was out of film. “Sometimes,” she said, “I shoot things and they don’t come out. But it is so wonderful even to have seen it.”