Instance in Time

Instance in Time is collaborative exhibit by photographers Rick McEwan and Adele Buttolph.  The exhibit is on display at the Josephy Center, Joseph, Oregon from July 30 through September 10, 2021.  The artist’s statement and images included in this gallery are from my (Adele’s) work on the exhibit.  Rick’s work can be viewed in the “Exhibitions & Events” area of the Josephy Center’s website. 

Instance in Time is comprised of images chosen to relate my personal photographic expression, which integrates aspects of place, time, and creativity as captured through my lens.  Photographs were also selected to convey a sense of commonality and diversity, which taken as a whole, expresses elements of our world on larger and smaller scales.  We experience nature as vast, beautiful, harsh, and elemental.  When we travel, we see nature as well as the human handprint, all of which weaves the fabric of time and place.  Our perceptions and feelings of a time and place are sourced from sensory input and overlain with our personal life experience and memory.  The visual stories portrayed in these images are offered as my unique eye on our world.

Five photographs selected for this exhibit use motion to enhance the mood or emotion that I experienced while photographing.  Intentional camera movement is a method of creating abstract and impressionistic images.  Each photograph created this way is unique.  I find that by experimenting with the type of movement and length of exposure, a new or enhanced sense of a scene can be created.  Working with this method leads to compelling imagery which can be deeply relaxing, energizing, or an avenue to curiosity.

As a photographer and traveler, I enjoy seeing the world on many scales.  My camera is the creative tool for finding some fraction of a scene that tells a story.  This fraction may be large and include a vast landscape, it may be a scene more moderate in visual scope, or small when a tiny element catches my eye.  Landscape and nature images selected for this exhibit were shot in the United States, Canada, Austria, and the Czech Republic.  These images convey my visual voice in capturing nature’s variety and moods.  The human element brings with it its own expression.  Whether as a small part of a location in nature or fully within a constructed town or city, people and their handiwork offer yet another avenue for expression of creativity and emotion.  It is my intent to offer the viewer a glimpse into my way of seeing and expression.

Instance in Time has culminated into a body of work that gives expression to time, place, history, memory, emotion, and life as seen through the lenses of the human eye and the camera.