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Technique or ProcessLabel
Beyond the aesthetic qualities of Clyde Butcher’s work, what distinguishes his landscape photography from that of other well-known photographers are the incredibly detailed mural-sized prints he produces on fiber-based silver gelatin paper. By carefully matching view camera format size to the subject matter photographed, Butcher can make prints measuring up to 5×9′ feet that allow the viewer to more fully embrace the breadth and scope of the landscape as Butcher experienced it in the field.
“I try to use the largest film possible for the particular subject I’m planning to photograph. So, if I have a huge, broad landscape, I use the 12×20″ view camera. If I am photographing something like the Ghost Orchid I use a 4×5″ view camera,” explains Butcher, who most often works with an 8×10″ view camera, but has a host of smaller and larger format view cameras. Butcher began making large prints as early as 1968. It has been in the last 20 or more years that he refined and perfected his technique of producing mural-sized prints.Label Type
DidacticLabel
Clyde Butcher (b. 1942)
Ghost Orchid, 1999
photograph
20 x 18 in.
Purchase by the HCC Ybor City Campus, 2021.1.1
In contrast to Butcher’s sweeping landscape photographs, Ghost Orchid depicts an intimate, close-up view of the elusive ghost orchid, a rare plant that is facing extinction due to poaching, habitat loss, and the effects of climate change. In order to photograph the plant, Butcher joined a team of biologists and documentary filmmakers in an exploration of the Florida Everglades. The resulting photograph is a striking image of the delicate bloom set against the muted backdrop of the swamp. Ghost Orchid invites the viewer to witness the plant in its natural habitat, an encounter that is becoming increasingly exceptional over time.
This work of art is a part of the HCC Permanent Art Collection. The HCC Art Galleries, through their Campus Loan Outreach Program, seek to share original art by collecting a diversity of works for the education and enjoyment of the HCC Community.