Dennis Shultz
Dennis Shultz
Photographer
Environmental photographer, Dennis Shultz, will present a lecture on his work Wednesday, February 12, 2003 at 4:30 p.m. in room 154 in the Bixler Art and Music Building at Colby College.
Shultz was awarded a Master’s of Science degree in chemistry from Ohio State University and following a corporate technical career he has now devoted his professional life to photography. The combination of his photographic vision, chemistry training, and life long enthusiasm for the outdoors has produced a successful career as a fine art landscape photographer. He is deeply involved in land use planning and environmental issues related to habitat protection.
Shultz’s recent book, To Save a River, (Aperture 2002), began as an independent project and was inspired by Shultz’s concerns for the preservation of the salmon habitat on the Duck Trap River in Lincolnville, Maine. The Coastal Mountain Land Trust became interested in the project and the book blossomed as collaboration between the two. Shultz has also been involved in projects with the Sierra Club, North Carolina Coastal Federation, and the US Fish and Wildlife Services.
It is Shultz’s ambition to produce an image that stimulates the observer to experience the scene rather than just observe it. He accomplishes this by visually studying the atmosphere created by the interaction of the subject and the light reflected on or projected from that subject. Shultz photographically responds to a subject through its texture, form, tone, and its relationship to other objects. However, his strengths are in finding that magic moment when the details of the scene are flooded with the perfect light: a light that provides uniqueness to the image that is related to only that fraction of time during film exposure.
Working in the field with cumbersome, large format cameras that are slow and complicated to operate creates a working environment that requires a certain deliberate association between the subject, the light, the equipment, and the photographer to create the final image. To best translate the organic nature of his subject, Shultz prints his 11”x14” negatives with a hand applied platinum emulsion on watercolor paper for its subtle gradation, warm tones, and textural surface.
Shultz will present a selection of works including images from To Save A River. You can also visit the Colby College Art Museum where you will find one of Shultz’s original platinum prints included in the exhibit Contemporary Prints and Photographs from the Bruce Brown Collection. Shultz’s talk, which is sponsored by the Colby College Department of Art and supported by the Arts Lecture Fund, is open to the public without charge. A reception will follow the talk allowing guests to meet the artist.