Gary Albertson – Fine Art Landscape Photographer

In 2010, Gary Albertson's 30-plus year career as an award winning corporate graphic designer and acclaimed, internationally collected, fine art landscape photographer seemed at its end, the result of a rare inherited eye disease. Today, with just a fraction of peripheral eyesight remaining, his deep love of nature drives him to adapt against all odds as he continues to refine his photographic art.

“One of the gifts of blindness, especially to a photographer, is the requirement of moving much slower. Composing an image takes me much more time now. I stitch all of the pieces together in my head to finally 'see' shape and form. Oh, what a wonderful sacrifice to slow down. Just give me a hundred yards and two weeks.”

“I started my career in corporate graphic design in 1970. My love of photography began, looking over the shoulders of many large format commercial photographers. In 1980, I designed, produced and self published the award winning book, 'Fire Mountain: The Eruptions of Mt. St. Helens,' royalties from which, allowed me to leave graphic design and turn to a full-time career as a fine art landscape photographer.”

“In 1995, while doing photography on the South Sea island of Roratonga, my kidneys suddenly failed. I barely made it back to the states to undergo dialysis. A year later, I received my sister’s kidney, which gave my life a new purpose; to follow my deep love of nature through the lens. In that same year, I was diagnosed with Pigment Dispersion Glaucoma.”

“In 1999, I moved to the shores of the Metolius River in central Oregon, committing myself to capturing the magical beauty of its waters and surrounding valley.”

From the beginning, Gary’s main camera has been a TOYO 45AX and also randomly switching to a Pentax 67. Advancements in digital photography have compelled Gary to follow, finding its benefits and now his main camera, for 80% of his work, is a Nikon D750. Since 2010, as Gary has lost eyesight, he works with professionals on post-production. He is always hopeful, looking to the future for new ways to enhance his independent spirit.

“For years I have found joy in sharing my photographs and have been giving talks and speeches about adapting, BEING captured before capturing, the art of seeing, not just looking. It has been a Journey Into Blindness. My main purpose is to simply adapt to my limited sight and use it to refine my photographic art. I hope this unique perspective opens a new door or window to the everlasting power of Nature."

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Blind photographer, Pulitzer winner collaborate for a Casey Eye Institute exhibit.

Original article link http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2013/04/post_63.html

Blind photographer, Pulitzer winner collaborate for a Casey Eye Institute exhibit

By Katy Muldoon | kmuldoon@oregonian.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on April 24, 2013 at 2:40 PM, updated April 24, 2013 at 3:38 PM

Photographer Gary Albertson describes the Metolius River as "a sweet, old grandmother that whispers a new lesson every day."GARY ALBERTSON

CAMP SHERMAN -- At the edge of the river that always calls him, Gary Albertson pauses before unpacking his camera gear.

He tilts his face toward mid-April's laboring sun and seems to drink in details: the cloudless sky; the butterscotch-hued bark of Ponderosa pines; grass pushing up between pockets of snow; a kingfisher's rattling call; a butterfly's shadow; the rapids and eddies of that gin-clear Central Oregon gem, the Metolius River.

"I have a ravenous desire to share," says the 64-year-old landscape photographer, "because I'm seeing something big."

He means that in the physical sense and philosophically, and so, beginning today in an unlikely art gallery, he will share. His landscapes and photojournalist Jay Mather's images of Albertson at work will grace the lobby walls at OHSU Casey Eye Institutethrough May. They call the exhibit "A Photographic Journey Into Blindness."

Albertson was at OHSU Hospital for a kidney transplant in 1996, when doctors diagnosed his pigment dispersion glaucoma, a rare, incurable, hereditary eye disease. His sight began to fail in 2001 and by 2010, he was legally blind.

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