Back in 1968, Andy Sweet began spending summers at Camp Mountain Lake, a sleep away camp in Hendersonville, North Carolina. As time went on, the adolescent camper graduated to counselor, then photography instructor, teaching the next generation of secular Jews from South Florida the joys of making photographs.
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In 1977 he returned with a mission for his work brought about by a course of study at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s MFA program. As a documentary photographer who had just crossed over to color, Sweet was inspired by the emerging photographers of the time: Robert Adams, Emmet Gowin, and Bill Owens.
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“These three photographers all have something in common with the way I work,” Sweet is quoted as saying in the foreword of Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Andy Sweet’s Summer Camp 1977 (Letter 16 Press). ‘Their photographs are not the reason of their subject matter. The subject matter is the reason of their work. Belonging, knowing, and understanding, before picking up the camera, is the most determining factor.”
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