((Left) Climbing Boot Butte by Steve Peters, (Right) Blackbird by John A. Stewart)
“Make visible, what without you, might never have been seen.” These words by filmmaker Robert Bresson permeate the fall exhibition at Sunriver’s Nancy McGrath Green Gallery.
Photography: Seven Points of View features seven Central Oregon photographers with wildly different perspectives in their work. Bend filmmaker and photographer John
A. Stewart has carefully curated the show, bringing together a diverse mix of Central Oregon photographers.
With their unexpected approaches, these photographers make you reconsider just what a camera can do. Each photographer presents a specific genre.
Steve Peters’ whimsical Living Large series features 1/64-scale figures interacting with everyday objects. “It’s sometimes easy to feel small and overwhelmed living in an incomprehensively big world,” he says. “I turn that frustration on its head.”
For his abstract works, curator Stewart photographs details and shapes of objects and designs, gathering hundreds of images. The next step is patience. Working in Photoshop, manipulating layers and blending modes, he produces that Bresson-inspired image that’s never been seen before. “Combining images is a celebratory process. I never know what magic will occur,” Stewart says.
Even the more traditional photography approaches in this exhibition present fresh points of view. Blanche Feekes captures the raw beauty of earth’s elements in her landscape photography. Big cats and predators are the focus of Michael Thornton’s wildlife photography. Paul Evenson explores the wildlife, landscapes and natural beauty of Sunriver.
Sue Dougherty brings her bird photography to the mix. Wildlife photography, she says, is difficult, dealing with the animals, proximity, weather and light. “It’s that uncertainty, the hope of an amazing surprise, that really amps the anticipation,” she says.
The western photographs of Joel Bailie show his deep appreciation of ranchers in the American West. Depicted in black and white, with meticulous light and shadow, his photographs are strongly influenced by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.
Join the artists for refreshments and lively discussion at the opening reception on Sunday, October 4 from 11:15am-12:30pm.
Photography: Seven Points of View runs through January 3, 2027. Nancy McGrath Green Gallery is open weekdays, 1-4pm and directly after church service on Sundays. 18139 Cottonwood Road in Sunriver (inside Sunriver Christian Fellowship). For showings outside gallery hours, contact mcgrathgreengallery@gmail.com.
sunriverchristianfellowship.org/nancy-mcgrath-green-art-gallery