A broad-spectrum exhibit

With the fast evolution of the smartphone camera and easily added filters making everyone a “photographer,” it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t that long ago that photography was an art practiced by few and admired by many.

Photographer Rich Bergeman will bring visitors to Lincoln City’s Chessman Gallery back to those days during “More Than Meets The Eye: Infrared Seascapes,” opening this Friday, Jan. 8.

Bergeman prefers working in black and white, in part because it takes the viewer one step away from the everyday world of color. Infrared takes the viewer yet another step further, transforming the landscape into a beautifully surreal, dream-like world. He loves photographing the Oregon Coast, especially during low tides, where a landscape teeming with life in dull browns and dark greens comes alive when viewed in infrared illumination: haunting, other-worldly, eerie and beautiful.

Gallery Director Krista Eddy will walk you through this exciting new show with a live video tour of the gallery on Friday, Jan. 8, at 4 pm on the Lincoln City Cultural Center’s Facebook page. Facebook @lincolncityculture. 

Bergeman has spent the past 30 years exploring different ways to express himself through photography, mostly in black and white, and mostly about times past. For years he exclusively used large-format cameras and printed in the traditional silver and platinum processes. These days, he primarily uses digital cameras and pinhole film cameras, and prints on fine art papers with archival-quality inkjet printers.

He has found it fun and even self-revelatory to explore the varied and unique ways different types of cameras see the world, and then learn the most appropriate subjects to apply each of them to.

“More Than Meets The Eye” will be on display through Sunday, Feb. 21.

The Chessman Gallery is located inside the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 540 NE Hwy. 101, open from 10 am to 4 pm Thursday through Sunday.

For more information call 541-994-9994, head to lincolncity-culturalcenter.org, or become a friend on Facebook.