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...