Last Chance

Catch It or Regret It

by Lydia Navatsyk

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Alida Fish's collection of tintype photographs (pictured) expresses the delight, and detachment, of childhood curiosity. Her subjects, each one perfectly centered within the photograph, strike us with their simplicity — the rolling pleats of a seashell or the stretched-out body of a horned fish. The images look washed and yellow with age, and carry the charm of treasures unearthed.

The 20 winning images from the annual Nikon Small World competition are all examples of photomicrography — pictures taken through a microscope. Blurring the distinction between science and art, the images dance with kaleidoscopic energy. Sometimes they resemble familiar things, like the scattered glow of fireflies; other times, the wonder of their exotic form is matched only by the surprise of discovering what they are: the cell nuclei of a mouse colon or the blood vessels of a rat retina.

In telling the story of legendary actress and singer Lena Horne, playwright Sharleen Cooper Cohen depicts both the young Horne, whose smooth, powerful voice wooed crowds and defied 1940s social conventions, and the older Horne, still spirited but tired from battling race politics. The older Horne relives her former days, starting with becoming the first African-American woman to sign a contract with a major Hollywood studio (MGM).