D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
October
2008
Dennis Weller, Photographer
Page: 2Exquisitely printed and presented, Weller's silver-gelatin photographs capture moments of time in the slow decline of a structure's life. Details are revealed amid light and shadow: fabric falling off a vestibule wall, a tumbleweed stuck inside a doorway, paint peeling from a window frame, a shaft of filtered light illuminating a Victorian-era chair. The pictures may seem simple at first glance, but closer inspection betrays their careful composition.
"I am essentially self-taught," says Weller, who retired in the 1990s from a career as a research psychologist at a US Navy base in Orlando. "I started exploring this part of the country three years before I moved. I went through Arizona and Colorado as well as New Mexico. I finally picked this place. Part of the attraction was the wilderness, because I hike a lot. But there were the photographic possibilities, too, with the ghost towns and the [quality of] light."
Weller laments that "there aren't many old buildings in Florida. They tend to knock 'em over to put up housing developments and shopping malls. I had to come here to find good old structures." In Orlando, he observes, "you have no sense of the past at all. Everything has been built since Disney arrived."
Weller's own skills as a builder encompass the construction of miniature structures, sometimes adorned with tiny hardwood floors, walls, doors and doll furniture, that he lights and shoots in black-and-white. These clean, minimalist images contrast with the decaying household furnishings and collapsing ceilings of many of his ghost town pictures.
"I take pictures out in the wilderness, too," Weller says. "I've done some scenics," including a few panoramas. "But I've had my interest in interior spaces for a long time."
For many years, even in Florida, Weller displayed and sold his photographs at dozens of outdoor art shows. He continues to do so on a limited basis, returning to display at a few Sunshine State venues each year. "Selling my photos is not a big moneymaker for me," he acknowledges with a laugh. "Not that I haven't tried."
While Weller has shown in various galleries over the years, he is currently unrepresented. Those interested can view his work at his home studio by appointment.
Obviously, this photography isn't undertaken for the specific purpose of commercial success. "Dennis is a real artist's artist," points out one prominent member of the Silver City arts community. "He is very exacting in meeting his own high standards, his own vision as it were." Another artistic colleague, a watercolorist, praises Weller for his commitment to an art form that seems to be dying in the digital age: dogged pursuit of black-and-white photography with traditional materials and methods, including the use of archival-quality processing and rag-based papers. "It's getting harder and harder to find photographers who do what Dennis Weller does," the admiring painter sighs, "and who do it so well."
Dennis Weller's panoramic photos will be on view at the Silver City Museum, 312 W. Broadway, beginning Oct. 10 with a 7-9 p.m. reception, as part of the 12th annual Weekend at the Galleries (see this issue's Arts Exposure section). For more information, call 538-5921 or visit www.silvercitymuseum.org His black-and-white photos will be on exhibit for six weeks at the Mimbres Region Arts Council Gallery in the Wells Fargo Bank building, 1201 Pope St. The show opens Oct. 3 with a reception at 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 538-2505 or see www.mimbresarts.org
Southwest Storylines columnist Richard Mahler is the author of 11 books, including The Jaguar's Shadow: Searching for a Mythic Cat, to be published by Yale University Press in 2009. His byline has appeared in publications including New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fean, Los Angeles Times and Arizona Highways, and on columns for the Albuquerque Journal and Crosswinds. He lives in Silver City.
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