Newsletter #211: August, 2024
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved
Welcome everyone,
July and August have been filled with exciting photo adventures while September is highlighted by a photographic presentation being held here at the Chris Harris Gallery.
Contents include:
- Gallery Presentation and Invitation
- Opening New Worlds of Photographic Expression
Invitation:
Rita, Teresa, and I invite you to join us at the Chris Harris Gallery on September 22, 2024, at 2pm. Door opens at 1:30.
Approaching Classic Art Movements Through Photography
Part I. Impressionism
For the first of the series, Chris and Teresa will return to the origin of Chris’s journey into expressive photography. They will discuss the relationship between the Impressionist movement, and Chris’s technique of Impressionist photography.
Teresa will speak about the historical underpinnings of the Impressionist movement, and the implications of transferring the style to the medium of photography.
Chris will speak about his creative process, and how Impressionism resonates with his photographic philosophy.
Join us for a very special event, where we will explore themes of experimentation and courage, nostalgia and romanticism, and the pursuit of enlivenment through art.
Join us at the Chris Harris Gallery on September 22, 2024, at 2pm. Door opens at 1:30.
There are no tickets, and all are welcome.
However, if you can let us know in advance that you are coming, and would like us to hold a seat, the best way is a phone call or text to Rita at; 250-706-5577.
Opening New Worlds of Photographic Expression
From 1990 to 2017, I explored the vast area of wilderness in central British Columbia known as the Chilcotin, experiencing and discovering its extraordinary beauty and biodiversity. Through artistic expression, my goal was to photograph a body of work that would generate a new visual identity and sense of place for the region. The overarching dream was to bring a deep sense of awareness of the value of the extraordinary place where we live.
The style of photographic expression best suited to extoling this sense of place was Documentary or Representational, a style that depicts the authentic reality of a place. The means by which I brought these images to the public was through book publications and public appearances. It was an extraordinarily exciting and meaningful chapter in my photographic career.
In 2017, I recognized an inner calling for change; my book publishing days were over, and I could no longer explore remote wilderness areas I once could. My passions for exploration and photography were heading in a new direction.
In the lives of painting artists whom I have known or read about, I was aware of a common trajectory in their work; from realism towards abstraction, and I always wondered why. Recently, as a photographic artisan, I am beginning to understand. I find myself on a similar path; a need to break away from the traditional figurative image-making style to a more dynamic expression.
In my new world of photographic expression, I travel far less (rarely more than 30 km along a chosen back country road), I see far more, and I have developed an array of new photographic styles by which to express my chosen subject matter. This means that the physical world which I travel and explore has drastically shrunk, and the visual world which I discover and photograph has immensely enlarged.
Thirty kilometers along a back country road
The following 30 images illustrate how I have enlarged my photographic vocabulary in order to express myself in new and exciting ways. I travel less, I see more, and my photography has become immensely more satisfying and meaningful. Below is a visual journey I experienced along a 30km stretch of Meadow Lake Road.
A 5-image documentary sampling of diverse landscapes along this road.
A 5-image documentary sampling of more intimate landscapes along the stretch of road.
A 20-image sampling of Expressionist and Abstract images along the same stretch of road.
This exploratory journey down a 30-km stretch of back country road has become of consequential importance to me. I have developed an intimate relationship with the land there. As Robert MacFarlan (my favourite author of the natural world) expressed, “images are the relationship between the land and the human spirit”.
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