Viewpoint Exhibit History

Special Presentation--FREE
Adventures in Mongolia, by Kerik Kouklis
Talk, Slide Show and Documentary Film Screening

Wed. March 27 at 6:30 p.m., Viewpoint Photographic Art Center

Join exhibiting photographer, fledgling film maker and Viewpoint Board President Kerik Kouklis for a night celebrating Mongolia. Kerik will share stories and images from his expeditions. He will also screen a 30-minute documentary he produced in 2017, “Mongolia in Winter”. 

THE EXHIBIT: For as long as he can remember, Kerik Kouklis has liked to make stuff. He discovered early on that he really like to make photographs. Taking pictures and making prints has been part of Kerik’s life ever since his dad set up a basement darkroom for him when he was twelve. Kerik would spend hours experimenting (and he says mostly failing) to make something interesting. But every once in a while, something good would result, leading him to continue my pursuit of the next good picture, the next good print.  Kerik has never been in the “image is everything” camp of photography. It’s important to him that the image takes the form of a physical object – something that can be touched, or held, or maybe even hung on a wall.

Kerik states that his job is to deliver the message, the mood, the thought, the emotion. The image is the starting place, and printmaking is the language. He makes all his prints in his darkroom, using hands-on processes — wet plate collodion, platinum/palladium and gum bichromate. These experience-based processes allow him to shape the way an image is interpreted – and they bring him the satisfaction of creating something with his own hands. To Kerik, that physical connection between maker and object confers value on both.

Lloyd Fergus, who recently passed away at the age of 99, was one of the founding members of Viewpoint.  Over many years, Lloyd dedicated thousands of hours of his time as a docent at the gallery. When Viewpoint was located in the Sacramento Museum and Archives Collection Center (SAMCC), Viewpoint’s “rent” was paid by its members working on projects for SAMCC. No one paid more rent for Viewpoint than Lloyd.  In recognition of his service to Viewpoint, Lloyd was later designated an Honorary Life Member by the Viewpoint Board.

Lloyd’s images typically came from his travels in the western United States and Canada.  He worked in all formats from 35mm to 8” x 10”, and typically printed in black and white with selenium toner to finish each piece.

"When working in the field I have no preconceived idea of what to photograph," he said. "I do not work to make a series, or a theme-connected group. Each photograph must be able to stand by itself and be complete.”

With each snap of the shutter Larry Brenden allows the world to see his love of nature and the natural world. Larry works to promote emotion in his photographic work...wonder, love, pain, peace and joy. Larry also brings a sense of adventure to his photographs by not documenting iconic sites but by allowing color and light guide him to photographs off the beaten track. “Finding the Spirit” was born from his sense of adventure and the draw of wild places. This series has been created using two types of photographic style; the more traditional style of landscape photography which utilizes a camera on a tripod with tack sharp precision, and a non-traditional style that involves movement of the camera in brush type strokes much like a painter with a canvas.

With today’s world of a constant cacophony of confusing stimulation, Larry finds harmony and peace visiting untamed locations.  The process of finding photographs can be spiritual or meditative with a “letting go” and surrendering to his surroundings. He many times finds his best photographs by becoming one with the energy of wild places.  Being drawn to the quality of light and color, Larry allows the composition to unfold and lets the spirit of his surroundings and his love of nature create the composition.  “Finding the Spirit” images have been captured in such faraway places as Iceland or New Zealand and locally such as literally in his back yard in Lincoln, California.

In celebration of the holiday season, Viewpoint presents its 10th annual juried show, TWELVE. This year's exhibit title and theme is Work of Art, which brings attention to the entire process of creating a photograph. It comes as no surprise to photographers, but there is a good deal more to making a well-crafted, meaningful photograph than a good camera with the right lens. Such photographs involve the preparation for “being there” as well as choosing the right place, the right time, right framing, right ISO, right shutter speed, and right aperture. Even these speak only to the initial capturing of the image. The interpretations that follow are partners in the making process, the work. The editing decisions of post processing are an enormous part of the work whether at the computer or in the darkroom. Nor is making a final print the end of the work. Now there are decisions about the size, color and style of the mat, plus where to sign and how to title the work. All these things and much more go into making an artful photograph that is an expression of the photographer’s idea. After all of it, the final word or last decision might be to share the photograph with others.

Twelve will be presented in both the Main Gallery and the Step Up. There are over 90 works of art to experience. This year's judge was Richard Murai, Assitant Director of the Center for Photographic Art located in Carmel, California. 

Milky Way over Dunes, Death Valley by Susan Scholey

Karen Connell states that she has always been fascinated with how people personalize their environment and personal spaces using color, natural materials and artifacts to create a sense of serenity, harmony and joy. Her work has always attempted to capture those feelings and share them with her viewers. These black and white flower studies are the current incarnation of a progression of work exploring this theme. Connell believes that flowers are integral to any positive human environment.    She says, "I marvel at how just the sight of flowers can make me feel happy.”

In this series of flower studies, she has distilled the essence of how flowers affect us by emphasizing line and light and eliminating the distractions of color. “I am filled with wonder at the magical impact of light on these flowers” she muses.

Her work has often been described as “painterly” and this work, while in black and white, continues that esthetic. She printed the images on Japanese mulberry paper to further enhance the impact of the images. “This paper adds layers of texture and depth to the two-dimensional images to make them much more expressive and conveys that sensibility I am trying to achieve in my work” she comments.

Growing up Patti Garcia had only one doll, she called him Tony. He was her best friend in a world of little materials or possessions. She left Tony behind when her parents moved to the USA and even though she was gifted with many new toys, her doll was still her best toy. She since has left dolls and other playthings behind and has found a new meaning for these creatures. Dolls capture a time of innocence, a time of simple games. But they also have a mystery about them, “they have been misunderstood in a world of suspicion”, says Garcia, they have a sense of the past, an almost eerie and scary feel of souls living in them. This is what captivated her when she first started to photograph them. She has now been shooting images of dolls for more than ten years. They all live in a box, no one has seen them, only Patti finds them as treasures to her collection. “I would like to share these images with the rest of doll enthusiasts and artists who can see what I see” shares Garcia.

There is nothing Farrell Scott loves more than capturing what happens behind the scenes to bring food to our tables. Whether it's documenting a busy kitchen or a working farm, she is only too happy to be in the middle of it all and seize the action. At the same time, when she’s in the studio creating a still life of a chocolate layer cake with ganache or a cheeseburger dripping with barbecue sauce, Scott has found how she communicates best with the world.

For the past several years, Scott has been working with a restaurant group designing their establishments from top to bottom. What she’s witnessed, time and time again, is the passion and full dedication of the people that bring beautiful, local food to the dining table. The story of their food is told repeatedly - just look at the millions of food images posted daily. But what’s their story? The Executive Chef that is an avid bow hunter, the Chef de Cuisine who has a wicked golf game or the Sous Chef that grows food and edible flowers. Scott wanted to find out about who was creating the amazing meals she was experiencing. Thus came about her first deep dive into portrait photography to bring you - Chefs Off Line.

Scott, a native of Sacramento, is a commercial photographer specializing in the art of food, agriculture and architecture. To challenge herself photographically, she enjoys exploring the waterways of Sacramento and Yolo creating night images any time of year while disregarding the weather.

The Currents series, by Beth Young, is borne of a reverence for the life blood that sustains us all: water. This series examines the various forms it takes as it circulates throughout the Earth, from clouds and mist in the atmosphere, to ocean waves and thundering waterfalls' to calm reflections. Throughout this process, water changes it’s state of being several times: ever-changing, refracting light, carving through stone, timeless, sensual, always steadfast.

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” - Ovid

Douglas Vincent works to convey fleeting moments that resonate as metaphors for guiding his life — subtlety, simplicity, the sublime.  The canvas of his inspiration is the American West, its brush strokes of wilderness and agriculture. He values intimacy of place, returning frequently to locations where time and communion have deepened his understanding of both place and self.

Douglas has disciplined himself to explore without a camera. The ability to see photographs is a mysterious balance of curiosity, receptivity, and experience. The acuteness of his receptivity, a discipline of letting go, can often be elusive and frustrating.  The process is a meditation, a "non-effort" in becoming fully present and immersed in his surroundings. When inspiration is found, it necessitates careful consideration of subject and light. Returning, under optimal conditions, to make the intended photograph can take minutes, a day, sometimes years. Or not at all. While intended photographs are sometimes lost, Douglas believes this approach enables him to create intimate meditative photographs that evoke both a sense and transcendence of place and subject.

Jerry Kapler’s current photography endeavors have included creating conceptual images which tell a story. He begins with his own original digital images and scans of older black and white negatives from the 1960s and 70s, which have been colorized in Photoshop. His ideas are expressed in individual images or with three to five images, which create a narrative.

When generating a new piece, Jerry’s goal is to create a surreal environment that will evoke emotion in the viewer. Even though the subject matter may contain religious or death elements, the initial underlying motivation is to see how these individual elements create a final interesting result. In essence, he enjoys putting together images that surprises both himself and the viewer. His strongest influences have been the surrealist Maggie Taylor and René Magritte as well as numerous medieval artists.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.  ~Henry David Thoreau

In this series, Wendy Baker combines her passions for travel and architectural and portrait photography to create visual stories evoking a feeling of mystery.

Her dreamlike images always begin with a sense of place.  She then adds her photographs of models, clothing, and other elements.  She states, “I love to travel.  I’m captivated by the idea of magical journeys—whether to far-off lands or deep into the self.  My goal is to create a feeling of fantasy — transitioning from the known to the unknown by using beautiful light, muted colors, symbolic details and compositions with strong leading lines.“  She often adds touches of archival glitter to her printed pieces before framing.   

As the owner of a commercial photography business based in the Sacramento area, she is constantly developing new skills.  She loves everything about the creative process.  From getting up before dawn in a new city to capturing the perfect light, to sitting at her computer combining the elements she’s gathered into a unique visual story, one that she hopes will spark the viewer's imagination.