Meeting Photographer Clyde Butcher

"Clyde Butcher (born 1942) is an American large format camera photographer known for wilderness photography of the Florida landscape. He began his career doing color photography before switching to large scale black-and-white landscape photography after the death of his son. Butcher is a strong advocate of conservation efforts and uses his work to promote awareness of the beauty of natural places." That is what Wikipedia says.

Today, I got to meet him face to face...


The Foosaner Art Museum is along the Indian River in the Eau Gallie Art District (EGAD). I have taken many photos in EGAD and probably have drank just as many beers there. I got an invite to an event on FaceBook. What the Foosaner web site says about the event:
From June 8 to October 19 the galleries will be filled with the Foosaner’s prized collection of over 60 landscape photographs made by Florida legend, Clyde Butcher (b. 1941).  Clyde Butcher: Florida’s Photographer features selections from the 1995 Limited Edition Collection.
Twenty-four years ago photographer, Clyde Butcher, printed sixty-nine different black and white images, each taken with a large format view camera of the environment of Florida.  Butcher worked in the darkroom to print a limited edition of only three copies of each image; one for his gallery, one for the Foosaner Art Museum, and one for sale.
The images are only available for viewing at this exhibit, as they are not to be found in any of Butcher’s books or on his website.
Unbelievable to me, this was my first visit to the museum. I took this photo of a Clyde self-portrait photo at the exhibition today. Not sure why birth years from the two blurbs disagree.


They had many of his books for sale at the Museum, and there was a line to get those books autographed. Although it looked long, it took about 20 minutes to reach the artist/photographer. I was having a conversation with the couple in front of me, and we were all wondering if photos were allowed. Others were taking them so I started too. As I approached Mr. Clyde Butcher.


One of the aides to Clyde offered to take a photo with my camera. He took both a landscape and a portrait. Here is the portrait!

I had purchased his book Visions of Dali's Spain. Last year, my friend Teresa had taken me to the exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg. The autograph....



I decided to take a few more photos of Clyde Butcher as others got their autographs and maybe a photograph with him.



As I mentioned, I had gone to this exhibition last year on the same day I saw the Red Sox lose to the Rays...



I told Clyde I had seen it and he told me it was a wonderful experience for him. I told him I loved it too and felt honored to meet him. What a nice man...and he has a pretty good eye too...this photo is one I took from the Dali show last year...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VT Trip - Steve's Park Diner

Image
 Although I was visiting Vermont primarily to visit relatives, there were other happenings in the town of Middlebury and surrounding areas. The unusual rain had not stopped the summer functions and events from happening. I was lucky enough to attend a few things, and one close to my heart was the small Memorial get-together for Steve's Park Diner being torn down. So on Saturday morning, August 4, after a nice walk from Tom's house on Weybridge Street, I arrived at the diner for one last time. I was early and sat myself next to the diner on the stone wall separating it from the Middlebury Town Hall Theater. The first person I talked to said she was the mother of one of the waitresses from the past, Jodi James. We had a nice chat and I saw an old class mate walking by. It was Kathy Smith, who did Independent Study with me Senior Year at MUHS, class of 1975. We did Oral Interpretation with fellow student Scott Sperry. It was great to see her. Other people starting showing up, some
Read more

Go to a retirement lunch

Image
A thing that is almost as fun as retiring is to go to the lunches for someone else that is just retiring. Usually, there are stories of the past and people are happy to see another person reaching the goal of full retirement. I have been lucky to have retired early, and now I am having the pleasure of starting to see other friends and past coworkers retire too. Today, it was my friend Kevin, who started work a year after I did. I have known him for over 35 years. That is a long time. Kevin at his retirement luncheon First, Kevin isn't even his first name. His full name is Michael Kevin Atchison. His wife's name is Christine but goes by Christy. I know Kevin is from Oklahoma and I always assumed Christy was too. They ended up in Florida because of the job at ENSCO, Inc., the company I retired from over two years ago after 34 years. The Florida Division of ENSCO was working sub-contracts for the Air Force. The Florida office was located at Shopper's World in Indian Har
Read more

VT Trip - 2023

Image
 My last drive to Vermont was in September of 2019. This time, being about four years older, I decided to give it another try. My goal was to make it to Virginia in the first day and then to Middlebury on the second. But between weather, traffic and construction, the goal can not always be met. My destination: I left Melbourne at 7:15 am on August 2 and I pulled in to the Holiday Inn Express in Roanoke Rapids North Carolina at 7:15 pm. It was about 682 miles in 12 total hours and I was only 9 miles from Virginia. There was a rainstorm in Georgia and lots of construction in North Carolina on I-95 that slowed me down. I left Roanoke Rapids at 7:17 am after having the complimentary breakfast at the Inn. Here is a picture of the Inn I stayed at, I actually have been to this one in a previous trip. As I said, I entered Virginia after gassing up in Weldon NC. The Welcome Center is right on the state line so my car was parked next to this sign... From that same spot I could also see the Welco
Read more