About the Artist

Photographer Bryan David Griffith's awards include both the 2003 & 2004 first place award for photography at the Sausalito Art Festival, ranked the best juried fine art show in America. His work is held in several private and corporate collections nationwide. With a background in art, Griffith learned photography by studying the works and writings of the old masters, building his first darkroom in 1996 while enrolled at the University of Michigan. He earned a degree in engineering, taught outdoor workshops to inner-city children, and worked with a leading management consulting firm before growing dissatisfied with corporate life. In 2000, he resigned from the firm to follow his heart, risking, and losing, nearly everything before finding success as an artist. Griffith now lives in Flagstaff, Arizona with his wife, Tasha.

Artist Statement

My work is about slowing down and noticing beauty in the world, especially that which is in danger of being lost or taken for granted. My work is less about a subject and more about a way of seeing that subject, less about a landscape and more about a feeling of being in that landscape. I photograph ordinary things like fallen leaves, winter skies, or rusted rail cars because I believe that everything has a story to tell, if only we stop and listen. I create dynamic landscapes that try to pull you into the image, that try to recreate the essential human experience of being in awe of and in rhythm with the heartbeat of the natural landscape- a fading heartbeat that we must preserve, if not for the planet, then for the soul. Most of all, I want my work to remind you to leave the desk, turn off the television, open a window, and smile at the warm gift of sunlight on your face. For those who appreciate that kind of everyday wonder in the world will surely conserve it for their children.

The message of my work also applies to its creation: I only make about 25 photographs a year. For every exposure I make, I spend many more days in the field just observing, waiting for that rare moment when season, time, and weather add up to just the right light: when a stone wall dances with color, or a flower opens to the sun. I rely on creative vision, mastery of traditional technique, patience, and luck; not special filters, digital effects, or process gimmicks.

Amateurs always ask about equipment. My advice is simple: Slow down. Forget about the latest gadgets. Focus on art, not technology: study the elements of design. Spend your money on film, paper, and practice, not a fancy camera. And finally, develop your own style and vision. For those who must know, I use basic 4x5 and 6x7 format cameras- simple boxes without electronics. These cameras are much larger, slower, and more difficult to operate than 35mm cameras, requiring hand calculation and adjustment of all parameters prior to exposure, but give me complete hands-on control. I use modern E-6 & C-41 process films, enlargement techniques, and photographic papers. I currently print on Fuji's crystal archive papers processed in RA-4 chemistry. I mat all images with cotton rag museum boards. As demand for my work has grown, I utilize 1-2 part-time assistants and select labs/framers to help with the non-creative aspects of my business. While the world of photography is changing, I believe my process still produces the finest prints possible. My goal will always be the same: to inspire people to slow down and appreciate the world around them.

"Griffith's talent is to craft his photographs with as much expression as a landscape painting… a master at juggling energetic chromaticity within striking visual images." -Ann Arbor News

Griffith's work has that special something. It isn't just an image of the Sneffels Range: His photography captures the emotion you feel when the light hits the peak... That moment when the light and the view takes your breath away and you feel suddenly very alive and very small. Some of his landscapes are highly abstracted and evoke the emotion of a Rothko painting. And his compositions series includes close up detail shots of peeling paint and rust that are brilliantly textured using line and color the way a painter would develop a canvas." -Durango Herald

"His work begins with uniquely simple compositions of recognizable landscapes, then becomes more and more minimal, ending with pieces such as "Nightfall, Lake Michigan," which appear more like abstract paintings than photographs. It's this expressive minimalism within the inherently realistic medium of photography that sets Griffith's work apart." -Flagstaff Live!

"Griffith's photographs are designed to pass on some of that wonder and to show people just what they might be missing in their daily hectic lives." –Kalamazoo Gazette