Interpreting Happy Valley: Photographer Kevin Reilly

Photographer Kevin D. Reilly pulled into the Fraser Street garage on an overcast and at times rainy fall afternoon. He looked up at the sky and questioned if it would clear. He hoped the weather forecast would be accurate and he wouldn’t lose the perfect lighting.

The clouds parted and as the sun came out, Reilly trekked to College Avenue with a ladder and camera equipment. Like a true Happy Valley resident, he remembers the day—Oct. 21, 2016—because it was the Friday before Penn State blocked a field goal kick against Ohio State.

Standing atop the ladder on the campus side of the street, he snapped a shot of a building. He climbed up and down the ladder from Burrowes Street to Garner Street, capturing every foot of College Avenue. The photos he took that Friday are now showcased in his “Impressions of Happy Valley” collection.

Reilly grew up in State College and, like many, has seen the town change over the years. As the buildings and businesses he knew began changing, Reilly felt called to do something.

“I grew up walking College Avenue pretending to be a college student,” he says of his high school days. “I have to photograph this for posterity’s sake, for history and who knows, maybe we’ll be able to do something with it.”

Alongside other projects, Reilly worked on his perspective of College Avenue, merging each photo, toning colors, removing cars and moving people throughout the scene.

Reilly cites Impressionism, a style of painting developed in 19th-century France, for his inspiration with the “brushstrokes” and coloring in his works, including “College Avenue West.”

“I felt jealous of how painters can put people in certain positions where they want. They can draw things the way they see them or the way their mind sees them,” he explains. “You have more freedom than what’s in front of the lens and a photograph.”

Reilly worked for decades in film photography shooting photo essays, exhibitions, advertisements and more. His work was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine and used by Fujifilm USA. He spent decades running his studio, Oh! Reilly Photography, in Philadelphia, but in 2008 he returned home to the mountains of Happy Valley.

Now, Reilly enjoys digital photography and the creative freedom that comes with editing software.

“As a modern artist, I feel I’m responsible to use some modern techniques to further my career,” he says. “Digital photography with Photoshop has opened the door to so many possibilities.”

“A Year in Happy Valley” takes viewers on a year-long trip through the most beloved parts of the Centre Region. A single print combines shots from across the region for a year in the life in Happy Valley.

It starts with fall and Mount Nittany, football and foliage before transitioning into the restaurants of downtown State College, snow and holiday decorations. With springtime comes new growth and kaleidoscopes of lush, green colors, ushering in the red, white and blue sparkle of summer and Arts Festival in downtown State College.

Each photo is an inspiration from his own formative years in State College, as well as seeing how others explore the Centre Region through photography.

“I go and try to find it [a location] and give it my own interpretation,” he says.

A scene from the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts captures the bright colors of flags zigzagging down the street, while a print of Mount Nittany showcases the rural landscape of the region. Both scenes appear like canvas oil paintings, an effect Reilly perfects using Painterly in Photoshop.

Another work showcases Bellefonte with fan-favorites of the town like the courthouse architecture, old Victorian houses and Tallyerand Park.

“That’s how I see Bellefonte,” he says.

Reilly’s photography expands into nature with his “Random Symmetree” and “Megacosm” projects. “Ripples” of “Megacosm” is a photo of clouds, a favorite subject to photograph for Reilly.

“They’re always fluid in some ways, but yet they’re stationary,” he says.

Spheres and ripples move the viewer’s eye through the photo and beckon them to think deeper about reality.

"It’s there to allow everybody to have their own interpretation of it,” Reilly says.

Reilly is the in-house digital artist at State College Framing Company and Gallery (160 Rolling Ridge Drive, State College). To view and order artwork, visit OhReilly.net or find him on Facebook at Oh! Reilly Photography. T&G

Hannah Pollock is a freelance writer in State College.

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