A solo show by alum Tim Atkinson GS'01
"What happens to us when we walk in the forest?
Like so many I have been drawn to nature. It has always inspired me, and I have photographed it since childhood. Usually my photographs have profoundly disappointed me, but I kept on regardless.
Eventually I became interested in pathways through the forest. Some paths led into bright sunnyplaces of hope, others into darker places. At the time I was fighting my inner darkness. I felt doomed and was struggling to see how I could move forward. Although I couldn’t see the paths in my own life, I spent time with the paths in the forest, and for me each photograph from that time has a story that resonated deeply with my path to recovery.
Once I showed someone a photograph, and he loved it, until I told him the story I had made up about it, and he then hated it. I actually quite like that. My stories may not work for you, but it seems that they have been a very important part of creating images that speak to people on many different levels.
Eventually I started feeling really good about life again. That’s when I had time to notice that I wasn’t alone on these paths. I was among ancient travelers, whose spirit is here long after they worshipped their deities in the shrines that you can find in the rocks, and feasted extravagantly in the grand caves. Their spirits marvel at we who believe that the ruins of their grand cities were simply formed by the random forces of ice and sun.
So I invite you in to these images. If you find your own stories there, do share them with me. As an artist I have a long relationship with each piece of work, I rework the images that I love many times over the years as my relationship with them deepens, and part of that relationship is what I hear from others about what they see." - Tim Atkinson
Tim Atkinson is both a photographer and a business executive. He and his wife Helen, singer, author and PR writer divide their time between New York City and their beautiful Victorian home in Kingston, NY, which provides a base for Tim’s photographic explorations of the Shawangunk ridge.