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July Issue 2005
NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, Features Works by Gregory Schmitt and John Fels
Two Carolina photographers, Gregory Schmitt
and John Fels, will be showing their favorite landscapes and beachscapes
in the NC Museum of Natural Sciences' Nature Art Gallery in Raleigh,
NC, June 3 - July 31, 2005.
Gregory Schmitt, from Summerville, SC, says his Palmetto Series
started by accident about three years ago. He was exploring a
swamp area of the Lowcountry of South Carolina with his camera,
when he was struck by the diverse graphic quality of palmettos
growing throughout the area. Schmitt says his photographs are
abstractions of their various details within the context of their
natural environment. "I saw in them the essence of a haiku
with its meditation on the spirit of nature - a life spirit within
the outer form."
Schmitt has been involved in photography for 35 years, first as a photojournalist and for the past 21 years as a teacher at the College of Charleston. He likes to work in series form, which enables him to explore his subjects in depth. He prefers black and white film because it gives his work a strong emotional component. Schmitt asks viewers to consider a favorite quote of Henry David Thoreau as they examine his work. "This curious world, which we inhabit, is more wonderful than it is convenient; more beautiful than it is useful ... more to be admired and enjoyed than used."
John Fels' Beachscape Series grew out of his fascination with the ways land is formed and how it became what it is. "The geologic and geomorphic processes that created such spectacular natural icons as the Grand Canyon, the Tetons or Yosemite now seem to be well understood, but the land-forming processes at much larger (plate tectonic) and smaller (microgeographic) scales are still much less so," says Fels.
Fels has lived in North Carolina since 1987 and teaches courses in cartography and geographic information systems for the College of Natural Resources at NC State University. His fascination with the natural world began in the hills, rivers and caves of the Ozarks of Missouri where he spent his childhood. He moved to Ontario in 1970 where he worked as a cartographer and became keenly interested in the study of geomorphology, the genesis of landforms.
Fels began photographing the Canadian landscape and was strongly influenced by Canada's Group of Seven painting school, whose artists felt that the rugged Canadian landscape required a bold, vigorous painting style and sought to distinguish themselves from the more pastoral European style.
For more info check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, contact Heather Heath at 919/733-7450, ext. 360 or at (www.naturalsciences.org).
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