Edwards photographer showing photo at Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Lakewood
EDWARDS — Raymond A. Bleesz, of Edwards, a member of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center since the 1970s, was recently accepted into the 2013 Members Show juried by Andrea Wallace, director of photography and digital media for the Anderson Arts Ranch in Snowmass. The entry, a black and white portrait, is titled “Mathiew, Bus Porter, Greensboro, N.C.”
“I happened to be at the Greensboro bus station on a very late summer night waiting for a bus arrival for a family member,” Bleesz said. “Mathiew, the only person at the terminal on duty, was social and was amused at my insistence upon taking his portrait. I shot a roll of Tri X film, 36 exposures, and more than likely pushed the development of the film since the lighting was harsh and dark. I then made a contact sheet for proofing. The lighting in the bus terminal was difficult to photograph in, but this pensive portrait of Mathiew came across as the strongest image. I have never had contact with Mathiew after that photo session. I would have liked to have given him a print if I knew of his whereabouts.”
Wallace received her masters of fine arts degree from the University of Colorado. She also was an assistant professor at Lake Forest College and Willamette University prior to the photo directorship at Anderson Arts Ranch. The members chosen by Wallace to exhibit at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center coincides with the Month of Photography Denver — an effort to promote photography as a fine art throughout all the galleries of Denver and elsewhere in Colorado.
A $300 prize will be given to three artists chosen from the members show to have a featured exhibition this summer at Colorado Photographic Arts Center’s new gallery space at 1513 Boulder Street in Denver.
Bleesz is also a member of the Center For Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins and is displaying there as well in a show titled “Stories, Memories, Histories.” The image in that show is titled “Nuclear Protest, Rocky Flats, Boulder, CO” during the Month of Photography in Denver.
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A sampling of Bleesz’s photographs can be viewed at Brush Creek Dry Goods in The Riverwalk at Edwards.
