Alaska House Gallery
I’ve been invited to be the featured artist for the month of March at the Alaska House Gallery in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaska House is a fine example of Interior Alaska’s log cabin artistry, designed and hand-built in 1939. There are oak floors, high ceilings and leaded windows in the three white-washed gallery rooms, hand hewn timbers overhead, and a river stone fireplace that brightens the gallery through the winter months. The gallery, owned by Yolande Fejes and Ron Veliz, is dedicated to preserving and promoting the art of Alaska. My photographs will be hanging there throughout the month but the “First Friday” artist reception will be this Friday, March 5th, from 5-8pm., please stop by for a visit if you are local to the area. If you are unable to attend, I’ve included my artist statement here below.
Artist Statement: Patrick J. Endres
I grew up in a small Midwest town, surrounded by the rolling hills of green farmland and hardwood forests. Adolescent curiosities and dreams of the future turned my vision north, and at age eighteen I ventured to Alaska—that seemingly mythical realm of adventure and land of extremes. I am not unlike many northern sojourners, lured to Alaska for reasons of intrigue and fascination, and compelled to remain by its giant space and rugged wilderness. Adventure is the seed of discovery, and Alaska is a place fertile and rich with opportunities for both.
An affinity for the visual arts has had a home inside me since childhood, and it leaked out repeatedly until I finally realized that in some fashion, it would become my way. This process of finding took a little time, but the fact that there is now a thin line between my photographic work and play, leads me to believe that I’m living near my passion. For me, the latter is critical because it is the context for creativity, which is the source underlying the words and pictures before you today.
Alaska’s natural world serves as a gateway into ubiquitous photographic material, from which I have sampled abundantly, but it is the layers and depth of its landscapes that now lure me most. While style is often found in the rear view mirror, I know that my long-time fascination with color and light, two fundamental aspects of painting and photography, weave their way into what may be descriptive of my work. I’m constantly intrigued by the influence of one upon the other.
My professional career is best summarized by nearly 30,000 images that span the last 17 years. They represent isolated moments in a fluid journey across Alaska’s vibrant landscape. Some are the result of serendipity, some of extensive planning and scouting, but all tell a small part of larger story. The process of their creation has been a voiceless, but not silent teacher, and I as the student am perpetually exhorted that the gift of seeing requires more than the eyes that see.
“Once in a while you find a place on earth that becomes your very own. A place undefined. Waiting for you to bring your color, your self. A place untouched, unspoiled, undeveloped. Raw, honest, and haunting. No one, nothing is telling you how to feel or who to be.” ~ Sundance
Notes About Digital Photography:
I make my living from a broad range of photography which includes stock photography for brochures and advertisements, editorial assignments for magazines, commercial photography for special projects, fine art print imagery, and to date, no wedding photography. They are all uniquely different in approach and style and are marketed largely through my website: patrickendres.wpengine.com.
I began the migration from film to digital in 2002 and by 2004 was shooting exclusively digital files. I retain no hint of nostalgic fondness for film photography since I find in the digital capture a greater dynamic range, superior overall quality, and an easier means of organization.
The work I present as fine art nature prints receive basic tonal enhancements and adjustments which include contrast, color temperature, brightness, sky control, etc., but the subject remains as it was observed. Disclosure when alterations are made for commercial or other aesthetic reasons is a value I consider important to the viewer, and thereby make note of it when performed. The prints themselves are made with Epson professional, archival quality inks and paper that when properly cared for, will outlast the healthiest viewer.
