Teacher's Photographs Purchased by Boston Public Library for its Permanent Collection

This summer the print department of the Boston Public Library (BPL) purchased 25 of Tony Loreti’s Boston street photography images.
This summer the print department of the Boston Public Library (BPL) purchased 25 of Tony Loreti’s Boston street photography images.

The BPL began collecting Tony’s work a few years ago, and this summer's big purchase doubles the number of prints by Tony purchased by the library for its permanent collection. He took the photographs throughout the city of Boston since 1980. Tony has taught photography for 17 years at CSW. 

“The BPL print department has a portfolio of the street photography work of Jules Aarons who was a Boston University physicist and a great street photographer, that spans the years from the 1940's to the 1970's,” said Tony. “They liked that my work began just as his had ended, there was a kind of continuity there. They also liked that my pictures are about many different parts of the city, not just downtown or the most visited areas. I have shot many of the city's neighborhoods over the years.”

The streets of Boston and surrounding communities have been the most constant subject of Tony’s photography, and very rewarding. It has been said that Charles Dickens wrote about London ‘like a special correspondent for posterity,’ Tony would hope that, through his photographs, he is performing a similar role in regard to Boston. He hopes that his work will portray an accurate and visually compelling record of the life of the city, as seen in its public places.

“The medium of photography is put to many uses, but, to me, its most powerful use is still to make a clear representation of an aspect of the world as it existed at a particular moment,” added Tony. “I’m lucky that at CSW, the arts are taken very seriously, because I truly believe it is an integral part of a meaningful education.”

Tony has captured street photographs since he began working in still photography in 1979. He continues to photograph on the city’s streets, recently concentrating on neighborhood events like the Caribbean Festival in Roxbury, the Dorchester, Roslindale Day, and Bunker Hill Parades.

The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.