Wild Beauty

Read an interview with Terry Toedtmeier:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/visualarts/2008/10/interview_terry_toedtemeier_on.html

Q: What do these photos say about what's happened to the gorge area?

A: It makes you look at the consequences of our decisions. The world has an awful lot of people living in it. We are at a point where we have to think about how we deal with our resources because it's conceivable that we could run out of air (laughs). That doesn't work real well. At some point, you know, what's good for all of us is what we all need to participate in. At the same time, the lights are on in this room because of the Bonneville Dam. So how do we look at those effects, and what do we use to gauge the quality of our judgments?

Invitation to 2009 Lishui, China Photo Festival

Recently I was invited to exhibit my work and travel to Lishui, China for the Lishui 2009 Photo Festival. Unfortunately, the timing is bad for me and I will not be able to attend the festival. Lishui is the only city in China with a Photography Museum. 

"http://www.lsphoto.org"

A website about the city of Lishui "http://www.lishui.gov.cn/lypd"

Keep your eyes out for this up and coming festival!

Klickitat River. Mt. Hood in the Distance

Columbia River Gorge Bound

Stevenson, Washington (on the Columbia River) Archival Pigment Print, 13x38,  2009 

I am headed off to the Columbia river gorge with the two boys for some camping and visits with the grandparents. We plan to explore some places that I grew up in including Hood River, Stevenson, High Prarie, Klickitat, Lyle, and Portland. 

Condolences

In Review, e-mail update, June 09

Character Recognition

John Mann and others at the Privateer Gallery in Brooklyn

Winners! Stone and Conrath

http://www.sfcamerawork.org/exhibitions/exhibitions_phelan2009.php

A portfolio of my prints are for sale at the Photographic Center NW in Seattle

Ann Pallesen asked me to send her some prints for a retail venture at PCNW. Thanks Ann for thinking of me!

A portfolio of 10 prints (sold individually) will be on sale at the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle.

Above is a sample image. Moss Log, 11"x14" on 13"x19" Museo Silver Rag Paper, Archival Pigment Print, 2008. From the series "The Salish Sea."

Dennis DeHart, Silver Print, 2008

A Camera Obscura by Mark McLoughlin

Hikari's 11th Birthday

©2009 Concept by Hikari Nakagawa, photo by James Nakagawa

Ellen Smith-Past and Present

Upcoming Workshop I will be teaching in July

Orcas Island Retreat

Saturday/Sunday

9:00 am-5:00 pm

Jul 11-12, Jul 18-19

$700

Dennis DeHart

Work with accomplished teacher and photographer Dennis DeHart on this retreat to Orcas Island. An opportunity to sharpen your technical skills, find new approaches to landscape photography through conceptual exercises, and to refine digital processing and printing techniques. A retreat for photographers who are looking for a fresh perspective on the Pacific Northwest landscape, or for visiting photographers who are keen to experience the San Juan Islands through a local artist and digital printmaking expert. The class will reconvene in Seattle the following weekend to make fine art digital prints in the lab at Photographic Center Northwest. View the projected schedule, which inlcudes shoots at Moran State Park, Obstruction Pass, and on Puget Sound as well as dinner and discussion after the daylight hours. Limited to 10 participants. One scholarship will be awarded for this workshop -- please contact the director of education (education@pcnw.org) for more information about this opportunity

http://www.pcnw.org/school/workshops.php#orcaislaretr

Myself looking at Betsy Schneider's Photos at Photo Lucida

http://www.pmpnonline.com/photolucida.htm

Ellen Garvens and others at SAM Rental Gallery in Seattle

Snaps from Photo Lucida in Portland, Oregon

Chicago photographer and fellow UNM graduate Alison Carey 

Arizona photographer Aaron Rothman showing his fabulous work.

Santa Fe photographer Megan Jacobs newest work

Snapshot of the open portfolio presentations at the Portland Art MuseumMary Virginia Swanson in Action during the Portfolio Reviews

Artist Statement, April 2009

Dennis DeHart
Artist Statement
April 2009

My fine art photographs and interdisciplinary projects are compelled by the connections, conflicts, and intersections of the natural and cultural worlds. I am interested in how our perceptions of nature are constructed by culture, and culture by nature.

During this past year (2008-2009) I have been making pictures in my home state of Washington. The images were photographed specifically in the northwest corner of of the state. This includes north of Seattle, up through the San Juan Islands and east to the North Cascades.

In terms of text, I am employing GPS mapping coordinates, which I have authorized based on memory, as opposed to technology. All the photographs are recorded and subjectively plotted on © Google Earth.

Conceptually, I am investigating landscapes through a combination of constructed and non-constructed photographs. In many instances, a kind of trauma is or has occurred in these images. The photos bear witness to this trauma while equally embracing the sublimity of seeing.

The photographs take the form of large-scale panoramas. Stylistically, I am sampling historical genres including 19th century travel and landscapes photography and prints. This includes research at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY studying prints by Carleton Watkins, among others. My photographs also draw from conventions of directional and staged photography.

Image from (un) natural histories including Artist Statement for Lens and Light; Upcoming Show Orange Coast College

Dennis DeHart, Archival Pigment Print, Paper -17"x22" (print size 11"x14") 2003/04. Re-Printed 2009

“Shooting unobtrusively with a hand held camera, like a tourist, in low light meant letting go of my expectations of what an image should look like and instead let it be its own thing that I worked in Photoshop to bring out subtle detail and its “surreal”qualities. These image play with popular mythologies and my own preconceptions as a participant in the natural history displays. I see the act of making these pictures as performative and an account of seeing, both with irony and sincerity.”

-From P.128, Lens and Light, Photography in the Digital Age, Robert Hirsch, Focal Press, 2008

(un) natural histories will be on display at the Orange Coast College Photo Gallery from late April through May, 2009. 

Recommended Reads: Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees

Nalini M. Nadkarni

Between Earth and Sky

Our Intimate Connections to Trees

I found this an interesting read by current Evergreen State College Professor Nalini Nadkarni. After reading this book, you will have a hard time experiencing trees in quite the same way. 

Green I love you green. Green Wind. Green Branches -Lorca

trees are our lungs turned inside out

& inhale our visible chilled breath

our lungs are trees turned inside out

& inhale their clear exhalation.

-Bill Yake, "Inside Out" 

sLowlife Essay and Images from the Chemical Heritage Museum

From the Archive, Shacks, Hansville,Washington, 2003

Dennis DeHart, 4x5 Silver Negative/Toned Silver Print, 2003

Carolyn from Silver City, New Mexico

Dennis DeHart, Digital Image, 2009

Some Quotes forwarded by Barbara Cox from Photo Kunst

"Mediocre artists borrow, great artists steal." ( t.S. Eliot)

"The single most useful observation I've ever encountered not just about photography but any artistic enterprise was his saying somewhere that "the central act of photography [is] the act of choosing and eliminating."-Szarkowski

"Some stuff really is better than other stuff," Szarkowski said. "The reason it's better is it provides more nourishing material for subsequent artists to deal with, hmm? No matter how good a PR you've got, the PR person is eventually going to die. In the long run, the tradition is defined by subsequent artists. . . . Some artists are better than others for that reason. They contribute more, they enrich the pool more, the pool of future possibilities, defining the grounds for subsequent experiment, hmm? Tradition is not a lot of old pictures. It's what we know of what has been achieved so far."

A View From Olga, Summer 2003

Olga Pier, Orcas Island, Washington, 4x5 Silver Negative, Original Print-

4"x5" Contact Print on Toned Silver Paper, Dennis DeHart, 2003