Art in the Spotlight

by Michael Carr

Two fine art photographers will showcase their work at the Yaquina Art Association Gallery from Saturday, June 22 through July 5.

Michael Carr has been a photographer since 1980, with work centered around the American West. He has been published hundreds of times in various newspapers and magazines and has won numerous awards from the national level on down.

He got his start as a photojournalist and from there moved towards his passion; outdoor photography. While getting his degree in photography he also studied wildlife biology as a way to better understand his subjects. Carr’s photographs of wildlife captured from Florida to Alaska are in many galleries and shops throughout the country, and he has sold them to people all over the world. He currently resides on the Oregon Coast with his wife Mary.

Ilene Samowitz focuses on the unseen and altered realities including infrared, long exposure, macro and black/white photography. They believe that printmaking is an important part of the artistic process and prints their work in the studio using fine art papers.

They started out shooting landscapes and doing black and white processing in the 1980s and took a composition class in Art Wolf’s living room in 1985.

Samowitz is also a scientist and musician and blends these aspects of their life into their award-winning photography. Also an avid birder, Samowitz began digiscoping birds and continues to photograph them as part of their artistic expression. They strongly believe that their photographic art also plays an important part in documenting all too quickly changing landscapes, weather, flora and fauna. Whenever possible, they choose to use recycled paper, recycled wood for frames and to print on bamboo.

The Yaquina Art Association Gallery is located in Nye Beach at 789 NW Beach Drive and is open daily from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information, go to yaquinaart.org.