Larry Brenden
Galleries:
“Antarctic Seascape” photographed along the Antarctic Peninsula in December of 2006 by landscape photographer Larry Brenden presents photographic images of a world that few have experienced.
These photographs, taken south of the notorious waters of Drake’s Passage along the Antarctic Peninsula represent a continent that is completely surrounded by ocean; yet has a desert climate which receives less than 3 inches of precipitation annually.
The relative isolation and a sky relatively free of pollution and haze leave the photographer with some unique challenges. The first is to create reference points within the photograph so the viewer and identify with the vastness of the landscape. Without buildings to create perspective or haze to help identify scale; one can often only ponder the immensity of the landscape.
A second challenge is color intensity. Though a photographers dream, the clean air intensifies the colors. Many travelers expect white snow and black rocks; when in fact the clean air and unpolluted environment contribute to a kaleidoscope of colors.
Though isolated by geography, the Antarctic continent is not isolated from the ravages of Global Warming and water conservation. This environment, one of the last pristine frontiers, is extremely vulnerable to our daily decisions about energy and waste. Though we may never visit, we and our children can only have an opportunity to experience this unique landscape by making environmentally conscious decisions.
These photographs were captured using a Pentax 645 N11 medium format film camera. Larry Brenden is an award winning Photographer and his images are in both public and private collections.
Dirk Van Denderen
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DvanD accepted a two-month posting as the photographer for a National Science Foundation (NSF) Artists and Writers Grant to the Palmer Station in Antarctica. Palmer Station is a remote oceanographic research station located on Anvers Island on the Antarctic Peninsula and is accessible primarily via the NSF icebreaker, Laurence M. Gould. With the support of Palmer’s staff, Artists and Writers enjoy a distraction-free environment in which to refine and enhance their projects. Daily routines included inflatable boat expeditions through glacial ice packs to document visually tantalizing ice caves, islands, ice arches, icebergs, glaciers and macrofauna. Following a day of shooting, evenings involved image processing, critique and mission strategy. The “Faux Edge Technique” evolved during these after hours sessions.
Michael L. Watson
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As a child I would dream of climbing high peaks and having incredible adventures in some far off corner of the world. Early on, climbing came naturally to me and I began to bring camera along as a way to document climbs and friends and soon found myself torn between two competing passions: the desire to climb and photograph.
After completing my masters in mathematics my desire to photograph could no longer be held at bay. Quickly I found that my style of photography was better suited to a larger camera so I bought a medium format and shortly after, traded that in for a large format 5x4 metal field camera. The contemplative nature of the view camera and the high degree of perspective control offered suited me perfectly.
In retrospect, many of my adventures have constituted more than most would willingly chose to endure, but my reward has been in the beauty I've found and in the photographs I have brought back. Many times I have not been the first person to visit some remote area but my sense of discovery is quite powerful none-the-less. While the intent was and is to communicate with the viewer, my photography is both introspective and highly personal.
Adonis Abril
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I have always pursued my artistic endeavors through music and poetry. It wasn’t until I became passionate about outdoor activities from hiking to mountain climbing, where I learned to appreciate the natural beauty of the Earth, when I picked up my first camera. I fell in love with the intricacies of light and how it interacts with nature. I wanted a way to share the things I saw, the colorful display of light, the movement of the waves but words simply could not accomplish this.
I study the natural surroundings through perpetual contact and observation. The wilderness is something that draws my attention and engulfs my vision to capture fleeting moments in nature that we sometimes fail to notice, be that a small rock in the sand or the grand ocean in the horizon. I am drawn to both intricate and grand details in nature where I allow my eyes to lead me to a composition.
Equipment is irrelevant to my photography. I focus more on technique and composition than I do with cameras or lenses. I am just as comfortable using a 4x5 Large Format (fully manual) camera as I am with a full featured modern Digital SLR.
I strive to always let my viewers experience what I experience being in the wilderness and my images reflect this. I don’t digitally manipulate my images, granted digital manipulation is subject to individual interpretation. I don’t, for example, take objects from photo and replicate it on another. My processes and workflow resemble processes that photographers from yesteryears used prior to the advent of digital imaging.
Ryan McIntosh
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Ryan McIntosh photographs exclusively with an 8x10 camera, with a focus on "field photography", but not limited to that medium. Ryan specializes in Silver Chloride contact prints, which is a very old printing process that yields the highest quality possible over all other methods of traditional black and white printing. To Ryan, photography is much more than just a recollection of a place, but rather a journey into a world that is unseen by many. His photography expresses his insights and feelings to the world that surrounds him. His photography has been showcased and exhibited in numerous galleries around the country. Ryan has placed very high in many juried art exhibits and has been published in several fine art photography publications. Currently, Ryan is working on developing a new series of work, while teaching the art of large format photography and traditional black and white printing.
Achim Fisher
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The aim of my landscape photographs is to combine two ostensibly incompatible modes of perception of nature with one another: namely the perspectives of the painter and the scientist.
The classical landscape painter is interested in the picture as a whole. He engages contours, forms, and colors, in search of balance and a successful composition. When seeing a dune, for instance, he perceives its harmoniously curved forms and the play of light and shadow when the sun is low on the horizon. Were someone to hand him a camera, he would shoot images that capture the beauty, power or evanescence of what is seen.
The natural scientist's interest is focused much more upon detail. He is preoccupied with causality, determinism, and natural forces and their interaction with one another. In seeking to explain why things are the way they are, he strives to trace natural phenomena back to the laws governing them. Were we to lead him to the selfsame dune, he would examine a single grain of sand and would attribute the dune's form, the angle of its slope, and the continual changes in shape caused by the wind to the physical properties of the grain. Through a camera lens he would concentrate on structures, patterns, and surface qualities by dint of close-up shots, which would then in turn bear witness to the play of natural forces and their formative effect on animate and inanimate nature; and, by doing this, the scientist would render the reasons for the qualities and constitution of the natural world visible.
The use of large format cameras as well as a complex process of enlargement-production allows me to capture both modes of perception of nature in one and the same picture. My aim are photographs that evince two very distinct, and yet inseparably interwoven, levels: an aesthetic level (the effect of nature on the viewer) and a purely analytic level (the effect of formative forces on nature). As these levels are often located on very different scales of magnitude, an extremely high optical resolution is required for the fusion of both in one picture. In most cases, the 4 x 5" shot format is not sufficiently true to detail; thus, I predominantly use 5 x 7" or 5 x 13" cameras for my work. For the same reasons, I prefer a final enlargement format of 30 x 40", at the least. The use of "Cibachrome" photo paper lends the photographs a maximum brilliance that further underscores the images' extreme richness in detail. Thanks to the fine-tuning of a great number of technical parameters I have arrived at over years of work my pictures succeed in providing a synthesis of the two complementary world views outlined above: the painter's and the scientist's perspective.
Dan Baumbach
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Dan
Baumbach has worked in advertising and fashion photography. He interned
with some of the top commercial photographers. Among his clients were
Gentleman's Quarterly and Eastern Airlines. Presently, he is drawn to
capturing his experiences when out in nature. "I like to shoot
during the times of the day when the light is out of the ordinary. Sunrises
and sunsets especially during cloudy or foggy conditions can bring out
incredible colors.
Eli Rush
Gallery: Coming Soon
I
enjoy camping trips to the Sierras as I get to spend more time in one
place studying the light and composing. I don’t feel rushed and
if I miss a shot I can come back the next day to set up early. The pace
gets slower and as I tune in closer to the natural rhythms of my surroundings
my eyes take in more.
Mark Howell
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I
started photographing with artistic intent about fifteen years ago. A
recovering poet, I had had enough of wandering about inside myself, of
trying to put myself into words. I soon discovered that the basic impulse
that caused me to trip the shutter was to praise. In the process of learning
to convey what I saw and felt, I discovered a deep satisfaction in printmaking.
Thus the twin motives of my photographic work: to make and to praise.
Robert A. Hicks
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Simply recording a landscape is not enough; I must attempt to make an
image that gives the viewer an intimate view of its essence, that essence
that I find attractive, comforting or catches my curiosity. Our current
and ancestral relationships with the land have produced modifications
to both humans and the occupied regions. These modifications leave artifacts
that interest me. This is indeed a curious relationship since it has evolved
and changed with time. I find it engaging to find and isolate these remnants,
record them in current context and present these images, occasionally
sad, sometimes contemplative, and often humorous, for viewing.
Elizabeth Carmel
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I believe that experiencing the Earth's beauty has the power to help nourish
and unify us, both on a personal and global level. Through my photography
I endeavor to translate these experiences into fine art prints. I strive
to create images that link us to feelings and perceptions we may not access
regularly in our daily lives. I believe that great fine art photographs
are a gateway through habitual thinking to a larger perspective.
Terry Nathan
Galleries: Waterscape - Landscape -
Terry
Nathan is a commercial and fine art photographer whose work is rooted
in portraying the aesthetic qualities of order within both natural and
human-made systems. In this exhibition a series of black and white photographs
explore those unique points in space and time when lightfuses land, air
and water. At those points architecture and landscape transcend their
literal interpretations and unite to spark the imagination.
John Lane
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As
a landscape photographer, my greatest
satisfactions are sharing images that emotionally and visually stimulate
people, connect people to the spiritual power of the nature, and finally,
inspire others to engage with the natural world and the things that affect
it. It is my sincere hope that, through my work, others are motivated
to seek outdoor experiences for themselves and find the places I have
been fortunate enough to call on.
Edward Mendes
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Much
of the world is missed while living life. The world around us speaks everyday
but all-to-often we don’t hear it; too busy with our own lives we
fly by at the speed of life and often miss the beauty that is waiting
right in front of our eyes. The world around us is immense, filled with
overwhelming sights and sensatory stimuli. When we do slow down for a
moment it’s often just to take in the environment as a whole, leaving
the intimacies of the world unnoticed or forgotten. I enjoy focusing on
these intimacies of the larger world; whether it is the soft coastal light
bathing a seaside pasture or the architectural and angular subtleties
produced by shapes and light, these easily overlooked moments are what
draw the attention of my lens. I grew up and continue to live on my family’s
farm; and doing so has installed a great appreciation for agriculture
and hence nature in general, something that I believe shows in my work.
As a boy, intimate landscapes and beautiful architectural details were
everywhere. The farm was a place where nature and man worked together
and depended upon one another. My work today continues with this influence
as a tie that binds nature and man together.