Gallery Opening for Photographer Russell Willard
Penn Camera Rockville
Friday, July 16th
7pm-9pm
Russell started his formal education in photography over a decade ago when he joined the photography club at his university. Having soon learned - among other things - how to research and photograph buildings in nature, he set up a clandestine darkroom in the closet of the family home in order to further his future phtoography career in architecture and in nature.
Thinking that he was going to live the Brady Bunch life as an architect, he was in for a rude awakening upon his first professional job, which paid him $5 an hour. In order to supplement his salary as a licensed architect, he began to photograph historical homes for private owners who wanted their home on the national registry.
Taking to photography, Russell has traveled extensively throughout the world. While continuing his architectural design work, he has been refocusing his energies on professional travel and documentary photography, specializing in the area of blending the buildt environment with nature. He has had the opporutunity to train with Bob Krist and Ralph Lee Hopkins of the National Geographic Society, and he is active in the Gaithersburg Camera Club, which is leading him to several opportunities to showcase his work.
When not in the office as lead designer, Russell leads photography workshops and photo tours. Needless to say, Russell is intimately familiar with on-location photography and how to select the most vitalizing sections fo building for visual impact. With a flair for simplifying the most complex subjects, Russell loves sharing the wealth of photo-ops that abound all around us with participants in his photo workshops and tours.
On display at Penn Camera Rockville are works that illustrate the blending of the built environment with the natural world. These phtoographs were created in a location with the finest examples in the Western world where the human race has successfully blended with nature; that location is Italy. Enjoy!
