Jean Ross shares her intimate images from India, taken on a six-week trip that included the more familiar sights of Rajasthan, including the camel fair at Pushkar, and Varanasi, as well as the less traveled eastern states. Ross says, “India is like no place else on earth. It is a travelers’ and photographers’ paradise with unrivaled diversity of landscape and culture; wonderful food and kind people; amazing history and monuments and all the comforts and discomforts of modern day life.”
Larry Brenden searches the Western United States to find compelling natural landscape images. His work conveys greater intimacy than typical landscape photographs and explores nature’s gorgeous color palette. Brenden says: “I am always looking, but more specifically, I am looking to photograph light, color, and form. To me, photography is all-consuming. A demanding discipline which entails my senses, intellect, and emotion, it is at once my passion and my spiritual base.”
“Using the camera as a tool, my intention is to quietly unveil nature’s secrets with integrity and capture an image true to the scene as first observed. Through the lens I seek to reveal the grandeur of the natural world, uncover her subtleties, show her impressive power, and expose her delicate side. Often, I examine a scene and decipher symmetrical patterns in the seemingly chaotic environment. Recording light and form is at once a fascination and a mystery. It is my goal to present well-crafted, un-doctored, aesthetic prints of the world’s beautifully wild places both to preserve and with full intent to protect.“
A former design engineer in the computer industry, Larry has spent the last decade as a respected photographer of the natural scene.
Click here to download the 2012 Auction Contribution Form
The April exhibit at Viewpoint displays the wonderful prints available for purchase in the 2012 Viewpoint Fine Print Auction and Fundraiser. Many well known photographers are featured in this year's the exhibit, along with many other talented Viewpoint members and supporters.
Prints may be purchased now through May 4 in the Online Silent Auction and/or on Saturday, May 5th at the Live Auction. Visit the AUCTION PAGE for the Catalog, the Online Auction, Instant Purchases, Pre-Bidding for the Live Auction, and additional information.
There is a place in our minds where we experience the inspiration of creative art; there is another realm where we ponder the rational calculations of science. But what happens when we put these insights together? We grasp the tangible beauty of the world.
Three accomplished photographers explore the intersections of art and science in this exhibit. Bob Fera and Mike Mayda point their cameras to the heavens to capture astonishing images of faraway galaxies; Terry Nathan follows the curving arcs of tiny whiffs of smoke and connects them to the seminal ideas of Isaac Newton. Together these three artists invite us to ponder the scientific dimensions of art, and the artistic insights of science.
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center is pleased to present the exhibit Searching for Wabi Sabi by Bruce MacDougall in its Step Up Gallery in October.
The photographs in Searching for Wabi Sabi “represent my effort at coming to terms with what life dumped in my lap the morning of April 29, 2010,” says MacDougall. “My daughter Molly was murdered that day.”
Wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that values objects and images reflecting the transience and imperfection that characterize our existence; it eschews the idealized, the formal, the ornate. “My daughter Ruby introduced me to wabi sabi,” MacDougall recalls, “in the hope that I would find some level of acceptance of Molly’s death within the tenets of wabi sabi: nothing is permanent; nothing is finished; nothing is perfect.”
The July exhibit at Viewpoint is the annual Members' Exhibit, featuring Viewpoint members' finest work from right here in Sacramento and around the globe. Come see what our members are up to!
Over the years, field trips sponsored by Viewpoint Gallery have inspired photographers to interpret, study, record, and reinterpret static and dynamic elements of the natural and manmade worlds that partially define Northern California.
This exhibit presents distinctive features belonging to sites of historical significance, recorded alongside spontaneous beauty captured in outdoor environments. The destinations for these excursions have included Preston Castle in Ione, Knight Foundry and Machine Shop of Sutter Creek, Bodie State Historic Park in Mono County, the Cosumnes River Preserve near Galt, and Mare Island Historic Park (a former Naval base and shipyard) in Vallejo.
Joseph Finkleman’s Fragile and Passing Patterns of imagery will be featured in the Step Up Gallery at Viewpoint Photographic Art Center during the month of June and the first week of July. Finkleman makes mostly abstract paintings with the brush we know as photography.
“This show, like much of my work, eliminates a great deal if not all context. I find in this work an interesting question. We will look at something and state that 'this' is a picture, and 'that' is not a picture. There is a boundary line, maybe more accurately, a boundary layer there and I try to place the 'this' is a picture as closely as possible to the boundary of 'that' is not a picture, in order to examine why is 'this' a picture and 'that' is not.”
The April exhibit at Viewpoint displays the amazing prints available this month in the 2011 Viewpoint Fine Print Auction and Fundraiser. This year’s featured photographers include Bruce Barnbaum, Tim Baskerville, Ruth Bernhard, Larry Blackwood, Howard Bond, Nan Brown, Ray Carofano, Martha Casanave, Mark Citret, Charles Cramer, Charles Farmer, Joan Gentry, Mark Howell, Geir Jordahl, Lewis Kemper, Michael Kenna, Gene Kennedy, Don Kirby, Machiko Kurita, Margaretta Mitchell, Richard Murai, Dianne Poinski, Ron Reeder, Merg Ross, Ron Rosenstock, Dominic Rouse, Ryuijie, John Sexton, Jock Sturges, Jerry Takigawa, John Wimberley, and Huntington Witherill. Many other Viewpoint members and supporters are also represented.
Prints may be purchased April 6 through May 6 in the Silent Online Auction and/or on Saturday, May 7th at the Live Auction. Visit the AUCTION PAGE for the Catalog, the Online Auction, and additional information.
Clockwise from top left: John Wimberley, Lewis Kemper, Michael Kenna, Frank Francis.
Clockwise from top left: John Johnson, Ron Rosenstock, Charles Traub, Merg Ross.
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center is pleased to present the work of sister and brother Brittany Murphy and Camden Hosea-Small in the Step Up Gallery beginning January 11, 2012. Both of them are presenting new visions in still-life photography, Murphy finding and bringing out the beauty in everyday objects, Hosea-Small exploring the sensual qualities of the smoke rising from burning incense.
Murphy uses darkness and a black backdrop, with a flashlight for “light painting” to visually erase portions of an object while illuminating others. Hosea-Small uses a narrow-beam strobe to sidelight smoke trails, also against a black backdrop.
Jonathan Mumby is a traditional landscape photographer – he exposes black and white film in a large view camera. Strongly influenced by the works of Ansel Adams and Brett Weston, he finds that lugging a heavy camera for many miles to make an exposure makes the photograph more satisfying. "I feel I don't just take the photograph – I earn it." The American western landscape is his favorite subject.
The 2010 Viewpoint Member's Exhibit showcases the extraordinary diversity and quality of work created by Viewpoint members. The breadth of the show is enormous, with photographs ranging from abstracts to architecture, people to landscape, and still life to documentary. The techniques used to make the prints range from antique alternative processes to traditional gelatin silver printing to the ubiquitous blossoming of the digital methods of today. There is truly something for everyone!
Gary McLaughlin: Bottles, Buenos Aires
Viewpoint’s March exhibit showcases The Anasazi Project by husband-and-wife photographers Don Kirby and Joan Gentry.
Cliff dwellings in the Four Corners region sheltered and protected the Anasazi people towards the end of their 1500-year presence in the region (200 BC to 1300 AD). Sited high on canyon walls in spectacular alcoves, the ruins seem to radiate the energy and mystery of this vanished culture. Kirby’s and Gentry’s long-term photographic exploration of the Anasazi began with “a disappointing photograph” of one of the ruins, but curiosity about a culture capable of such achievement took hold, and three years of study led to a growing respect for the Anasazi’s energy, perseverance, and artistry. Kirby and Gentry have now photographed in Anasazi country for over twenty years, making photographs that “attempt to express this great respect.”
Viewpoint Environmental Art Fair
Viewpoint Gallery is joining with nonprofit nature conservation and educational groups to host the Viewpoint Environmental Art Fair for the opening of Robert Glenn Ketchum's November exhibit, co-sponsored by KVIE public television.
There will be live music, a silent auction, and booths by our nonprofit partners in the adjacent courtyard (details below). Viewpoint Gallery will also launch new membership options with fine art images by Lewis Kemper, Roman Loranc, and John Wimberley, and silk scarves featuring photographic designs by Robert Glenn Ketchum. Silent auction items will include fine art prints, guided raft trips, canoe tours, coffee table books, dinner vouchers, and more.
"You shall enter the living shelter of the forest.
You shall walk where only the wind has walked before".
– Nancy Newhall, 1959
Iconic symbols of majestic form, evocative of age and fortitude, trees solicit emotive responses. Whether provoking conservation movements, inspiring artistry, or simply impressing the viewer, they have historically symbolized strength, power, and beauty. Growing in lush rainforests, chaparral woodlands, and mountainside rock outcroppings, trees in their myriad forms permeate many inhabited regions of the Earth, and consequently, are revered, studied and harvested. And, their presence is recorded. Tree: Observed presents visual interpretations by four American photographers working in distinct topographical and geographic regions. From the East Coast to the country’s westernmost point of Hawaii, each photographer, employing his or her chosen photographic medium and technique, has eloquently interpreted these natural icons.
Viewpoint’s 4th annual December juried exhibition is Twelve: Square, a selection of photographs exploring the particular challenges and properties of the square format.
“I considered the use of the frame to be of utmost importance when curating this year’s Viewpoint exhibition,” writes exhibit juror Byron Wolfe, eminent photographer and Professor of Communication Design at California State University, Chico. “I looked for pictures where the photographer’s compositional approach recognized the unique properties of the square.”
“There’s something special about squares,” Wolfe observes. “At first, their perfect symmetry and equally measured sides convey stability and equilibrium, but as soon as you start to fill them up with things, their balance becomes delicate and tenuous. Suddenly, composing within a square is more akin to a man carefully poised on high-tension wire. Nudging subject matter around the edges of a square has the potential to create tension or energy, and the use of internal space in the square can create emphasis or a settled stability.”
Step Up Gallery at Viewpoint presents the work of Grass Valley photographer Frank Francis, whose focus is the people of remote countries around the world.
For the last 25 years, Frank Francis has had a consuming interest in photography. His work has its source in the remote reaches of the world, on extended trips to the mountains, deserts and rivers of Africa, India, the Middle East, the Himalayas, Mongolia and Myanmar. Traveling mostly alone, the goal has been to explore the places and people of those remote places and photograph that which is quickly passing.
Viewpoint Gallery will present the work of Christopher Rauschenberg in an exhibition called Paris: Walking with Atget. For these photographs, Rauschenberg revisited Paris locations photographed by the French photographer Eugene Atget in the early 20th century, rephotographing the same views at the end of the 20th century to reveal what had changed and what had not. Paris: Walking with Atget includes 40 of Rauschenberg’s silver prints, many of them paired with copies of Atget’s original images.
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center presents the work of Ivan Sohrakoff in the Step Up Gallery at Viewpoint during the month of August. A Woodland photographer, Sohrakoff has been photographing for 17 years but has been photographing color landscapes with a passion since late 2009. Sohrakoff’s exhibit is called “The Lines of Landscape.” From man-made bridges to natural rock formations, the lines of landscape guide our eyes around the world. Sometimes elegant, sometimes blunt, these lines can manifest themselves as obvious vanishing points or as subtle elements that help lead a viewer through the scene.
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center proudly presents the work of Jon Sousa, a California photographer who shares for the first time one of four portfolios based on his travels in the States and abroad. With thirty-five years of photography experience as a photo educator at the high school and community college level, as well as having owned and operated Jon Sousa Photography doing portrait work, Sousa now turns his attention to his personal vision. In this body of work, The Human Touch, Sousa’s images incorporate the relationship between his favorite model and evocative architectural settings.
Fifteen North American photographers celebrate the new decade immersed in the remote cultures, ancient temple architecture, stunning landscapes, and UNESCO World Heritage sites of Cambodia and Myanmar, Southeast Asia’s second largest county (formerly known as Burma). Under the direction of photographer and educator Rick Murai of Penn Valley, California, and in partnership with Myths and Mountains, each participant on this excursion captures unique and personal interpretations of urban and rural historical sites and cultural landmarks defining these Southeast Asian countries. Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s politically charged capital, and Tuol Sleng Prison and the Killing Fields – sobering testaments to the Khmer Rouge – are visited, as is Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar.
Entries for Twelve: Parallels have been selected. Congratulations to our winners and all the photographers whose work is in the exhibit, and a big Thank You to everyone who submitted images! The winners are:
1st Place: James Gilmore, Memory and Metaphor
2nd Place: Eric Baral, Cell Phone Diptych 2
3rd Place: Gordon Reynolds, Johns
Honorable Mention: Dan Herrera, The Carapace
Honorable Mention: Diane Tempest, Parallel Shoes
Honorable Mention: Roberta Neidigh, Five Trees
Viewpoint Gallery’s annual juried exhibit Twelve encourages photographers to interpret an idea suggested by the theme of the show. This year’s theme “Parallels” alludes to the year 2011 itself with its obvious numeric parallel. But it also invites photographers to conjure connections and relatedness within the photographic frame. Entries for Twelve: Parallels will contrast, compare, illuminate, suggest, capture, and express photographers' varied approaches to this theme. In addition to single images, Twelve: Parallels will feature multiple images in diptychs, triptychs and polyptychs.
Ten Eyes is a group of Sacramento women photographers who began meeting monthly in 1983 to show and critique each other’s work. Originally five in number, the group has grown to include more women who share a passion for creating photographic art. This exhibition is a collaborative effort to present images taken by each member of the Ten Eyes group of places visited and objects acquired during their travels.
The women of Ten Eyes exhibiting are:
| Liz Welsh Abad | Dolores Frank | Victoria Ruderman |
| Karen Connell | Francine Moskovitz | Ilse Spivek |
| Anita Frimkess Fein | Shirley Plant | Judy Yemma |
Chris Schiller has been photographing the American West for over 20 years. He seeks out places and views rarely or never photographed before. He uses his camera as another way to explore the places he visits, bringing his images a sense of discovery and delight. In this exhibit of superbly crafted images, Chris Schiller looks at the movement of water in all of its manifestations, both in the present and the past.
Chris Kaufman's exhibit Military Moments documents the experiences of men and women in the armed forces, including Beale Air Force Base, and the communities that support them. “The service members of Beale and the surrounding community are passionate about the military, and it's important to give them a voice and tell their story."
Jeff Enlow’s project Behind the Levees is about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where California's two largest rivers meet. It's a place that exists in some distant past while being thrust into an uncertain future. Behind the Levees captures quiet spaces in the Delta where man and nature meet, at a time that may never exist like this again.
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Viewpoint Photographic Art Center is the proud recipient of a SMAC Cultural Arts Award grant.
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Individual Sponsorships Diane Tempest J.B. Jones
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