Brookhaven fest features photos

Browsers at this weekend’s Brookhaven Arts Festival will instantly recognize Atlanta photographer Michael Bryant’s sepia-steeped images at Booth No. 70.

For starters, Bryant’s iconic photos of Atlanta, Chicago, Paris and Florence are likely the only ones in the show taken with a $19 plastic Holga toy camera. This week, we were treated to an advance preview of Bryant’s new work at Outwrite Books, where a selection of his pieces are currently on display.

As we gazed up at the Eiffel Tower, Bryant told us: “I bought my first Holga on a fluke just before a trip to Paris in 1999. I loved the way it blurred the edges and the way it pulled and manipulated images and how it allowed light to leak in.”

In an age where digital cameras provide instant insight (not to mention instant gratification) into what you’ve just shot, Bryant says he prefers the mystery of the Holga and its old-school 120 film.

“The more you work with it and the more skilled you are, you’ll get a fairly good idea of what you’ve captured but still, you don’t really know until you have a look at the negatives,” he says. “For me, that’s part of the mystique.”

Also included in Bryant’s latest series: a set of iconic Atlanta images utilizing multiple exposures, including shots of The Majestic Diner on Ponce de Leon Avenue and The Fox Theatre on Peachtree Street.

“With the multiple exposures, there’s almost an abstract aspect to them,” Bryant says. And the storm clouds overhead in the shots are not the result of PhotoShop either.

Explained Bryant: “I took these the morning after the tornadoes hit the city in March. The sky was just so ominous and scary-looking, I had to do some shooting.”

Bryant, long a fixture in Piedmont Park as a Dogwood Festival artist, is thrilled the annual event is poised to return there in 2008 after being bumped to Buckhead this spring.

“I did OK at Lenox Square this year but it was complete luck,” Bryant says. “A businessman from Oregon had an entire office to decorate. He looked down from his window at the Ritz-Carlton and saw us. I was in the right place at the right time!”

The Brookhaven Arts Festival runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Sunday on Apple Valley Road right behind the Brookhaven MARTA station. Info: Brookhavenartsalliance.com or michael-bryant.com.

Extended ‘Commute’

On Friday, the folks at the Alliance Theatre informed Buzz Central that its world premiere comedy revue, “The Second City: Too Busy to Hate … Too Hard to Commute,” featuring members of the legendary Chicago comedy troupe riffing on Atlanta, will extend for one week of performances. We hear that tickets have been snapped up quickly for the Hertz Stage shows. The show will run through Nov. 2. Tickets are now on sale: $30 and $40. To purchase, call the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404-733-5000 or visit www.alliancetheatre.org.

Employee of the month?

As the Dow dug a fresh basement Friday, we received word of a heartening nature. It seems a wallet was left at the Northside Parkway Flying Biscuit Cafe in Buckhead this week. Server Angela Cook retrieved it and turned it into manager John Kareem. Inside: a grand in cash and an ID. Turns out the wallet belonged to prominent attorney Marc Taylor of Taylor, Busch, Slipakoff & Duma. Ironically, Taylor’s colleague at the firm, Charles Hoff, serves as general counsel for the Georgia Restaurant Association.

Taylor didn’t even know he was missing the wad and the wallet until Kareem Googled him and left a message on his office voice mail.

“With that amount of money, I kinda expected him to call,” Kareem told us Friday. “But we were glad to help.”

“I was stunned,” Taylor told us. “It must have taken them an hour on the net to locate me. Plus, I’m not exactly the first Marc Taylor you come across in this city. And I’m not even going to try and explain the money. That was just stupid on my part. I honestly thought I had left my wallet at the office or in my car. It’s restored my faith in humanity.”

The kicker? Taylor’s firm actually does work for Biscuit’s parent company, Raving Brands.

Said Taylor: “I told them that employees with that level of integrity are what a successful company is built on.”

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Today: Actor Luke Perry is 42. Actor Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”) is 40. Rapper MC Lyte is 37. Actress Emily Deschanel (“Bones”) is 32.

Sunday: Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 76. Singer Sam Moore of Sam and Dave is 73. News correspondent Chris Wallace is 61. Jazz musician Chris Botti is 46. Actor Hugh Jackman (“The X-Men”) is 40. Actor Adam Rich (“Eight Is Enough”) is 40. Actor Kirk Cameron is 38.

OVERSCENE

The entire Washington Capitals NHL team chowing down at Morton’s The Steakhouse downtown prior to their season opener against the Thrashers Thursday night. The 30 players ordered double-cut filet mignons and Morton’s hot chocolate cake. The group started dinner with shrimp Alexander, broiled sea scallops and mini-crab cakes. Much wine was opened. Oh, and one person in the party ordered a piece of tuna. Normally, this is where Buzz would insert a snarky comment. But these guys swing sticks and re-arrange dental work for a living …

Contributing: News services.

Got a tip for Peach Buzz? 404-526-2749 or buzz@ajc.com