Three Shenandoah Valley photographers/professors are teaming up to present a show of their work at Blandy Experimental Farm, home of the State Arboretum of Virginia.
“Leaf. Flower. Spiral. The Flow of Energy in the Natural World” opened Sunday, Feb. 13 with a reception from 3-5 p.m.
Steven David Johnson, Scott Jost, and Howard Zehr are all experienced photographers with an interest in the natural world. Johnson and Zehr are professors at Eastern Mennonite University, while Jost, a former EMU prof, now teaches photography and design at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Va.
Portfolios focus on nature’s beauty
Johnson’s work focuses on whirlpools, natural spirals that form abstract patterns in the images he shot on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
Jost’s portfolio of photos, called “Un/Cultivated,” uses very shallow depth of field to create lush, colorful images of emerging spring plants that evoke feelings of renewal and growth.
Zehr’s “Leaf Portraits” capture the personalities, textures, and individualities of leaves using portrait lighting in a studio setting.
“Rather than seek ‘perfect’ specimens at the peak of their development, I watched for leaves with personality, leaves that showed signs of having lived and were now moving toward ‘death,’” Zehr explained. Many of the leaves came from his own yard.
Zehr’s photography has been included in a variety of publications and exhibits, including four books published by Good Books. Jost is a contributing photographer to “The Great Valley Road of Virginia: Shenandoah Landscapes from Prehistory to the Present.” Johnson is a featured artist in Ruminate Magazine and Rock and Sling, and his work has also been published in Orion, Shots, Blue Ridge Country, and National Geographic Traveler.
The exhibit is on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily in the dining room and will hang through March 27. All works are for sale, and range in price from $175 to $225. Small prints and cards are also available.
About the Arboretum
The State Arboretum of Virginia is part of historic Blandy Experimental Farm, a research field station for the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences. Blandy Experimental Farm is on Route 50 in Clarke County, about 10 miles east of Winchester and 20 miles west of Middleburg. Directions and a calendar of events are online at www.virginia.edu/blandy.