DAVID LEE MYERS
David Lee Myers Photography
Why photograph? To share comfort and joy in the world, to share committing to it, and caring for it. We make photographs in many ways: usually persistent, thoughtful work; occasionally a quick and joyful catch. Seeing and appreciating beauty and subtlety nurtures our spirit amidst the challenges of life.
Why photograph? To see with sensitivity and grace, to see with curiosity and imagination. To inquire what is beyond us, that we look towards; to inquire what is within us, by which we see.
My scientist father and artist mother raised me on the beaches, mountains, and deserts of southern California. I remember lying on Will Rogers State Park’s beaches, studying sand grains an inch from my eye, each a different color and shape. During family outings to the Mojave, I felt the earth turn under the sky, and in the clear nights saw our position among the stars. I moved north to attend the University of California at Berkeley expecting to become a scientist, and left with degrees in mathematics and an abiding love for and commitment to fine art photography. What had happened? Nothing original – I had found an Ansel Adams book, These We Inherit.
In 1970 the romantic “back to the land” movement took me still farther north, to a clearing in the woods on Washington’s rainforest coast, one ridge from the Columbia River. Settling into a yearly hundred inches of rain, I learned the seasons of garden and firewood. Trees, birds, butterflies, and all things wild were the stuff of daily life. In 2000 I crossed the Columbia to live in Astoria.
Forty years of teaching college photography was a great satisfaction. Helping people find their own voices to explore the joys and challenges of life is a real highlight. Figuring out how to explain the artistic issues and the techniques increased my own understanding and helped my own work.
David Lee Myers Photography
Why photograph? To share comfort and joy in the world, to share committing to it, and caring for it. We make photographs in many ways: usually persistent, thoughtful work; occasionally a quick and joyful catch. Seeing and appreciating beauty and subtlety nurtures our spirit amidst the challenges of life.
Why photograph? To see with sensitivity and grace, to see with curiosity and imagination. To inquire what is beyond us, that we look towards; to inquire what is within us, by which we see.
My scientist father and artist mother raised me on the beaches, mountains, and deserts of southern California. I remember lying on Will Rogers State Park’s beaches, studying sand grains an inch from my eye, each a different color and shape. During family outings to the Mojave, I felt the earth turn under the sky, and in the clear nights saw our position among the stars. I moved north to attend the University of California at Berkeley expecting to become a scientist, and left with degrees in mathematics and an abiding love for and commitment to fine art photography. What had happened? Nothing original – I had found an Ansel Adams book, These We Inherit.
In 1970 the romantic “back to the land” movement took me still farther north, to a clearing in the woods on Washington’s rainforest coast, one ridge from the Columbia River. Settling into a yearly hundred inches of rain, I learned the seasons of garden and firewood. Trees, birds, butterflies, and all things wild were the stuff of daily life. In 2000 I crossed the Columbia to live in Astoria.
Forty years of teaching college photography was a great satisfaction. Helping people find their own voices to explore the joys and challenges of life is a real highlight. Figuring out how to explain the artistic issues and the techniques increased my own understanding and helped my own work.
