WILLIAM S. SUTTON, FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHER
Willy Sutton's work has been included in over 15 national and international book publications, and is exhibited and collected by major museums from France to New York to Denver. He is professor of phtography, and gallery director at Regis University and is a recipient of an NEA Fellowship award among many others. Willy's portfolio of work about the lands of the American West is part of the Denver Art Museum collection and is often referred to as an example of excellence in presentation and vision.

WORKSHOPS WITH WILLY SUTTON Gallery Practices Craft, Composition, Content 101 Portfolio

CRAFT, COMPOSITION, CONTENT 101
Photographers of all skill levels will enjoy this great workshop. Discuss important ideas and photograph in Belmar and also in two of Lakewood's most beautiful parks, a few blocks from our studio – your subjects are picturesque lakes, grassy meadows, historic farmyards, 50's diners and contemporary architecture. Five minutes to and from the WWA studio gives you a chance to critique digital images midday and go back for more practice. Rain, snow or shine.

GALLERY PRACTICES: PRESENTING YOUR WORK
Museum and gallery standards are demanding and exist for a number of extremely practical as well as aesthetic reasons. This short session with Willy Sutton will guide you into good habits for any presentation of your work, whether in a portfolio viewing or selections for a major museum. Avoid the pitfalls of popular trends – make sure curators view your work as you want it to be seen, and prepare it to endure for generations. Presentations Day session, 1-2 hours.

PORTFOLIO
Editing your work is probably one of a photographer’s most difficult tasks. Willy brings extensive knowledge from his many years of teaching and working with museums and galleries to this workshop. You’ll be presented with a lot of information in a relatively short period of time, tools and insights that will make an important difference in your work. Be prepared to finalize your portfolio, and to make changes. What you will take away will be the best of your best, in a form that will impress the most critical of museum or gallery curators. Learn their practices and guidelines. 6 Weeknights followed by one month break prior to final critique of formal portfolio. Limit 6

Western New Mexico University Artist Statement
January 2002
Places in the American West

I make photographs from a sense of wonder at the world and a yearning for meaning of life. For me, making images requires an act of faith, faith that the work has meaning, and faith that the efforts will be worthwhile. Walking the earth, informed by science and the humanities, history, and the creations of other searchers, the significant questions remain. How am I part of the whole? What is the nature of salvation? Good pictures provide some sense of satisfaction in at least getting the question right if not some clues to possible answers.

To be a photographer is to see and express significant images in the world around us. The work that I have been making engages me with the landscape, inquiries into nature, and myths of the American West. To a certain degree the myths of the American West are the myths of American culture and immigrants/ pioneers in general: to journey to a new land, to see it freshly, and to find a way through luck and hard work to make a better way of life from it. This seems, inherently hopeful. But it does not always consider what is lost in the consequences of our actions. Others lived here before our technology pushed them out, or before their own technology reached its limits.

From geologic time to the most recent acts of human beings, the land records and expresses what has taken place upon it and through it. A patterned sequence of vegetation reveals changes in moisture and soil structure as well as specie succession. A sawmill or the remains of an Anasazi dwelling speak of economic or environmental pressures removed from the time and place of their existence. These aspects of the landscape are reminders of others who have lived with good intentions in this place. I imagine their successes and failures and measure them with my own aspirations for myself and this place.

To make photographs of the western landscape is to enter a tradition of previous image-makers. It is to accept that a certain broad visual language and discourse has already been established. Variations and subversions of that language are possible approaches. It is useful to know the tradition, the powers and weaknesses, assumptions and seductions, but mostly to love what is best about the efforts of those that have formed the tradition. How can the world and nature be seen freshly? What stories continue to remain meaningful? How can a picture be hopeful and encouraging and still look directly at what has been destroyed by our actions?

I continue to find meaning and challenge in engaging the world around me, the earth and sky, and what they might represent. It is my intention that these pictures will be wondrous and hopeful, that they will have meaning beyond issues of land use and politics, that they will express the beauty and horror of nature, and that they will ask questions of the nature of existence and the possibilities of place.

William S. Sutton
January 2002