Lake Tenaya, Yosemite, 1973
silver gelatin print, edition 6/50
Print: 20 x 24 inches
Matted: 29 x 36 inches
Louis Stern Fine Arts is pleased to present Kolbrener’s Yosemite: Photographs Celebrating the Centennial of Ansel Adams. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artist from 6 to 9 PM, March 1 and continues through April 5, 2003.
Kolbrener’s Yosemite: Photographs Celebrating the Centennial of Ansel Adams
Bob Kolbrener is, as all passionate landscape photographers learn to be, a patient human being. Armed with an 8 x 10 view camera, a well stocked traveling van and an unwavering commitment to “straight” photography, Kolbrener has spent the past thirty years discovering the luminous vistas of the American West. Kolbrener has withstood sudden rainstorms, bone-numbing cold and moody morning sunlight in order to compose eloquently powerful images from the natural world; images, as Edward Weston philosophized, based not on interpretation but on significant presentation.
As a student of and, later, instructor with the inspirational Ansel Adams, Kolbrener’s photographs echo back to his mentor by virtue of their conception. The photographer, without typical print or negative enhancement such as bleaching or intensification, processes all the prints. The images are magical even poetic. The cascading waterfall glows as if lit by a multitude of sun filled diamonds. But no digital manipulation caused this epiphany of light. The poetry resides in the eye of the photographer and his ability to deliver this poetry into the camera lens. In creating his deeply moving tribute to the glories of Yosemite, Kolbrener honors not only his legendary mentor but, perhaps more profoundly, the art of photography itself.
Galleries throughout the United States have exhibited Bob Kolbrener’s photography. His work is included in the collections of numerous institutions including The Saint Louis Art Museum, The Hunter Museum, The Suwa Art Museum, Washington University, Fort Mason and The Polaroid Corporation. This exhibition marks Mr. Kolbrener’s first solo show with Louis Stern Fine Arts.