seeleyart.com / artwork by don seeley

Most of my photography from the past few years has examined 'place' as a human construct in conflict with time, natural elements and human nature.

We are the only species that has both the tools and inclination to alter their environment in opposition to the natural world rather than in concert with it. But even the most aggressive human constructions are temporary disruptions to other, more inexorable forces. The first conflict is a clash of egos between the constructor's vision and the pragmatism or curiosity of others: fences are breached, signs and signals disregarded, walls and roofs defaced or decorated. The second conflict is with time: this is sometimes a matter of changing fashion or anachronism of purpose, other times it's a matter of surrender to entropy and decay and the relentless forces of nature. The large majority of my photographs record these mundane ephemera.

In the context of this aesthetic, I have two primary influences: Lynne Cohen [link], who I studied under at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Robert Adams, formerly of Colorado Springs. Lynne, at the time, was well know for her austere examinations of institutional and corporate spaces. Robert Adams [link] taught at Colorado College when I was a child growing up in Colorado Springs. His book, The New West, is made up of photographs from this period and perfectly capture that region's rapid suburbanization.

I have been practicing visual art for over 40 years, working primarily in painting and photography. Before shifting to fine art, I photographed wedding/portrait, commercial and news assignments in Idaho and Colorado. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I live in Evanston with my wife, poet and educator, Salli Berg Seeley