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| Chuck Kimmerle |
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| "Window Lace" |
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| "Schoolroom Heaters" |
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| "Telephone Pole Shadow" |
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| "Road Hearts" |
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| "Crosses" |
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| "Roadside Marker and Cloud Break" |
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| "Patriotic" |
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| "Mule Deer Antlers" |
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| "Rain Squall" |
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| "Canyon Reflections" |
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| "Strip of Sunlight" |
I am most grateful to Mr. Kimmerle for his kind permission to
feature his work here on my blog.
feature his work here on my blog.
Chuck Kimmerle Biography and Artist's Statement:
Despite knowing little about photography at the time, I knew I was destined to make my living as a photographer when I received my first camera, a Canon Canonet QL17 GIII, as a high school graduation present. The entire process mesmerized me. I was hooked. However, a prior enlistment in the U.S. Army Infantry, which began shortly afterwards, put that dream on the back burner for a few years.
Following my discharge, I enrolled in the Photographic Engineering Technology program at St. Cloud State University, thinking it a solid career backup plan should my dream of being a photographer be unrealized. The technically-focused program provided me with a solid background in photographic science, chemistry, processes and sensitometry.
While at the university, I began working at the school paper, which was followed by a photojournalism position at the St. Cloud Times and, subsequently, jobs at newspapers in Pennsylvania and finally North Dakota, where I was part of a four-person staff named as finalists for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. In 2000, I left the erratic schedule of photojournalism to the more predictable hours as the staff photographer at the University of North Dakota, where I remained for the next 10 years.
In 2010 I followed my wife, a New York City native, to her new job in the least populated state in the U.S., Wyoming, where I now work as an educational and commercial freelance photographer.
Throughout the years working as a photographer for others, I spent a great deal of my free time doing personal work for myself. These images, which were infinitely more important to me that the work images, were primarily landscapes. However, I have never considered myself a nature photographer. Instead, I tend to gravitate towards those areas which are influenced by both man and nature.
Despite having embraced the digital medium, I consider myself a landscape photographer in the traditional sense of the word. My style is straightforward and formal, with a deep depth-of-field and an unabashed honesty to the subject matter, and is in direct contrast to the contemporary trend of highly conceptualized pictorials. Who says newer is always better?
In the past few years I've had the honor to study with such esteemed photographers as Alan Ross, George DeWolfe, Jean Meile, Jay Dusard, Jack Dykinga and Bruce Barnbaum.
While I am drawn to photograph landscapes, I have never considered myself a nature photographer. Instead, I am drawn to those landscapes which exist at the confluence of, and are influenced by, both nature and man. Within that realm, my primary interests lie in the quiet and reticent agricultural landscapes of the plains, particularly the northern plains.
These sparsely populated areas, unassuming and devoid of grandiosity, are often unappreciated for their quiet and compelling beauty, even by those who live on, and work with, the land.
In keeping with the aesthetic of the land, my images are often straightforward, formal and balanced. As form and texture, above color, are the defining characteristics, I work almost exclusively in black and white. Despite having fully embraced digital technologies, I consider myself a landscape photograper in the traditional sense of the word, with deep depth-of-field and and honest approach to my subjects. And, while having almost limitless control over my images I, as a general rule, let pixels lie where they have fallen, and limit my image enhancements to those available in the traditional darkroom.
It is my hope that these images will elevate awareness and appreciation for those landscapes which, while lacking obvious grand elements, offer a quiet, yet compelling, beauty.
"...Instead, I am drawn to those landscapes which exist at the confluence of, and are influenced by, both nature and man." I completely understand this in every sense of the statement. I am surrounded by abandoned farm houses and rotting structures of what were formerly family homes built in the 1800's. The above images: 'Window Lace', 'Telephone Pole Shadow', and 'Patriotic' stand out to me within this series. Beautiful light work.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your comment, Cindy. And, I completely agree. My background is in the social sciences, as well as the arts. Exploring the relationship between man and his surroundings is what drew me to photography.
ReplyDelete