About

I am commonly asked how and when I got started in photography. The simple answer is that, while in the Boy Scouts, a group of friends and I built a darkroom, and I became hooked on seeing the latent image come to life in a tray of chemicals. Later, I studied photography in college, and cultivated my skills through years of personal experience. I also participated in workshops with highly respected photographers, including Kerik Kouklis and Charles Cramer of the Ansel Adams Gallery, to learn and master expert techniques. In a way, I prefer this simple story, as I want people to connect with my images emotionally based on the content and use of visual elements, without the influence of who I am, my personal experience, or education. The more personal answer, which is more difficult to talk about, is the passing away of my creative mother one week before my twelve birthday - this loss had a profound affect and left a lasting hole in my life. No longer having a home life, I spent many childhood hours pondering and sitting in nature, feeling its beauty and healing qualities, and later, beginning to capture those qualities with photography. The slow thoughtful process of film photography helps me remain very present in each moment, and intensely aware of the textures, light, patterns and rhythm of the natural setting. The creative and technical aspects are challenging and rewarding. Photographing the landscape has led me on great adventures to places of grandeur, my photography is not meant as simple documentation of the travel experience. The process of photography is a slow journey of feeling and contemplating the surroundings, of that connection within oneself, and then arranging that feeling through the lens onto a latent image. Later I walk through the process of personally bringing that image to life to express that connection through print-making. My hope is that the open-minded, open-hearted viewer will feel this connection to the natural landscape and the nuanced moment presented in the final artwork. Thru the positive energy of viewing the beauty around us we can enjoy and then aspire to make the world a little better place to live in.

For more than twenty years I’ve been fortunate to have Karen Adams, my partner in life, share and help me with our passion of photographing the landscape.

contact

thadgerheim@yahoo.com