July 5th – Aug 31st
Artist Talk: Tuesday, July 18th | 6:30-7:30 pm
Bryce Denison – Artist Statement
My father was a professional hunting and fishing guide. As such, I was raised on a diet of wild game and fish, complemented by fresh vegetables from our family’s seven-acre garden in Gibraltar, Michigan. Through my father’s tutelage, I learned the ways of nature: hunting, fishing, and about flora and fauna. I even ran a trap line as a kid (muskrat). As a youth, I shot with a gun; now I shoot with a camera.
My entire family has always been outdoor-oriented. I still love to hike, camp, canoe, and to fully experience the Great Outdoors. In selecting the images to include in this exhibition, I wanted to show the diversity of North American flora, ranging from mosses, lichens, trees, flowers and fungi, while including nearly every phylum possible.
I hope my photographs inspire you to share and embrace my love of the natural world. I have a natural curiosity of all things, and I try to capture and share the images of beauty in what I see and experience.
While magnificent images can be made within only a few miles of your home, travel opens up wonderful additional opportunities. Photography has taken me all over the world, allowing me to share my skills and vision with students, friends, family, and colleagues. I enjoy making photographs of many diverse subjects such as wildlife, landscape, nature, architecture, portraiture, the artistic human figure, and numerous other subjects.
Nearly 50 years ago, I had the great privilege of earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (B.F.A.) in applied photography from the College for Creative Studies and then a Master’s Degree (MA) in Photography from Wayne State University where I spent many years on their faculty.
In 2015, the National Center for Nature Photography granted me the privilege of exhibiting more than 80 of my framed images of various species of animals taken throughout North America and environs. That exhibit entitled, “Fauna of North and Central America”, was followed by “Flora of North America” in 2017.
The year, 2023, marks the beginning of my 58th year in photography.
The first 39 years of my career in photography was based on film – until 2004 when digital imaging equaled, and began to surpass, film quality. Since then, all my image making has been digital. I printed this entire display on an Epson 9900 inkjet digital printer at Midwest Photography Workshops, the school which I own and direct. Some of the images came from my film archives, and then scanned into digital images from which to make the digital prints in this display. The later images were created on digital cameras. All editing was done on a Macintosh computer using a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop to maximize color accuracy and brilliance.
For a majority of my 58 years in photography, my camera of choice has been a large format camera such as a Linhoff 4×5, or a Deardorff 8×10. Medium format cameras included Hasselblad, Pentax 6×7, or Mamiya RB 67. Small format film and digital cameras were primarily Sony, Fuji or Nikon. The majority of images in this exhibit were made using either a Nikon camera and Nikon lenses or a Sony Camera with Sony lenses. One photo in this exhibit was even made with an Apple cell phone. I rarely make a photograph without the benefit of a Gitzo tripod.
Included in the exhibit of photographic images are accompanying details of each plant. The descriptions include interesting facts of each plant throughout its history, and any medicinal advantage the plant offered according to various homeopathic enthusiasts. Also included in the description; when available is the make and model of camera, lens shutter speed, aperture and ISO.
I hope you enjoy this exhibit as much as I have enjoyed my experiences to create these images for your enjoyment. Shoot what makes your heart sing!
The Woods Gallery is located in the lower level of the Huntington Woods Library and is open during library hours.