Dennis DeHart

Land of the Stratus

Nov. 6, 2009 - January 7, 2010

My fine art photographs and interdisciplinary projects are compelled by the connections, conflicts, and intersections of the natural and cultural worlds. I am interested in how our perceptions of nature are constructed by culture, and culture by nature. During this past year (2008-2009) I have been making pictures in my home state of Washington. The images were photographed specifically in the northwest corner of of the state. This includes north of Seattle, up through the San Juan Islands and east to the North Cascades. Conceptually, I am investigating landscapes through a combination of constructed and non-constructed photographs. In many instances, a kind of trauma is or has occurred in these images. The photos bear witness to this trauma while equally embracing the sublimity of seeing. The photographs take the form of large-scale panoramas. Stylistically, I am sampling historical genres including 19th century travel and landscapes photography and prints. This includes research at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY studying prints by Carleton Watkins, among others. My photographs also draw from conventions of directional and staged photography.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Dennis DeHart's fine art photographs and interdisciplinary projects are compelled by the connections, conflicts, and intersections of the natural and cultural worlds. He was born in Hood River, Oregon and spent his formative years in the Pacific NW. Dennis holds a M.F.A. in Photography from The University of New Mexico and a Bachelors degree from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

His work has been exhibited in over 75 venues including group, collaborative and solo shows in the United States, Spain, Turkey, China, New Zealand, and Lithunia. Dennis has received grants and awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and The Beaumont Newhall / Van Deren Coke Fellowship. His work has been published in such books as Photography, 8th & 9th editions and periodicals including Leonardo (MIT). Dennis's work is included in private and public collections including the Getty Archives in Los Angels, The City of Phoenix, and the Centro de Art Seville in Seville, Spain.

Professionally, Dennis has served as a Visiting Professor of Photography and Digital Imaging with Indiana University & Prescott College (Arizona), and as an Assistant Professor of Photography with the State University of New York College at Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York. He has also done extensive volunteer work including two years of National Service in Seattle, Washington.

Dennis currently lives and works as a full time artist and professional photographer on Orcas Island (Washington State) with his wife and two sons.

DeHart's recent photographs include large format panoramic images that Diana Edkins, a curator at the Aperture gallery in New York City describes as " A classical approach to the western landscape and space, which is both dissident and disturbing while functioning aesthetically and provocatively." http://www.dennisdehart.com/