Photography Exhibit by Brooks de Wetter-Smith

We have the honor of hosting the photography of Binkley artist Brooks de Wetter-Smith in our Sanctuary throughout the summer.  His work is an act of meditation that witnesses the peace of the natural world amid the chaos of what humans create. 

PHOTOGRAPHER’S STATEMENT
Contemplative Photographic Exhibit

Binkley Baptist Church

The exploration of light has fascinated me since I was a very
young boy sitting in my father’s darkroom, transfixed as negative
images were projected with our enlarger onto photopaper, then
seeing a positive image slowly emerge on paper bathed in the
developing tray in the dimly-lit space illuminated by a faint
safelight and accompanied by the humming, ever-present fan. It
was a time of great mystery!

My first camera was a simple “Brownie” that soon morphed into a
real camera, a Kodak Signet 35. I was hooked in my early teens
and that fascination evolved into the digital world of photography.
The early forays into that world were fraught with limitations and
yet filled with wonder of what might be possible. Before becoming
a musician, I was fascinated by physics and how things worked.
Digital photography fed my insatiable curiosity about this new
technology.
Photography is about embracing a moment in time. It could be as
brief as 1/2000 of a second or as long as a half hour, depending
on the light availability and the subject. Being engaged in this
pursuit is a meditative experience for me. I’m not photographing
the frenetic pace of sports or similar venues. For me, the feeling is
one of savoring what is special and sacred in the moment. It is
enhanced by lighting, the weather and the spiritual presence of a
location. Often I am transformed by that reality.

I have been inspired by the unanticipated and overwhelming awe
of being in the presence of Mt. Everest. At another time, I have
been moved by peering into the eye of a penguin who likely has
never seen a human. One of the most humbling moments in the
Antarctic region was playing a tiny wooden flute while surrounded
by several hundred thousand King penguins on South Georgia
Island. I was dressed in my flamboyant red parka, they in their
formal black and white attire with iridescent yellow and orange
covering on their neck. Surely, they had never heard a flute
before. What would they do? I played for a couple of minutes and
was totally ignored by all of God’s creatures in attendance. While
later photographing and filming different penguins on the
continent of Antarctica in a white-out blizzard, I was moved by
their resilience, their patience and their care for one another.

As a photographer, I feel especially close to our Creator, in grand
and intimate encounters. The camera forces us to slow down to
see the mystery of creation. It is a means of contemplating our
place in that wonder, denying the constraints of time. I hope you
will sense the awe, the grace, the spiritual essence that lies within
the embraced moment of the shutter’s release.

Brooks de Wetter-Smith, Photographer
Photo website: dewettersmith.com
Email: dewettersmith@gmail.com