Van Bulck Photography

As an artist, I see the world differently than most people. I have learned to look at my surroundings, not so much seeking out my next image or project, as simply seeing. I compose photographs in my mind as I travel down the highway, as I walk along the shore at the beach, as I go about my daily activities. Many of these photographs never make it beyond the image in my mind, but they inform my vision.
My current body of work is a fine art, form-based collection of abstract water reflections. Movement, color and light are captured as they affect the appearance of the water’s surface. They represent moments in time in a very small space that will never be exactly the same again. The reflections that I find in water are ever changing. They change from instant to instant. What I see at one moment will no longer exist the next moment. I need to be able to move quickly as the view changes.
I am seeking to create an emotional reaction in the lines, shapes and colors of the water reflections similar to the emotional reaction that I have when I look into the water, with or without my camera. There is little or nothing that specifically speaks to the actual subject, water. What I am seeking to create in my viewers is an emotional reaction to those lines, shapes and colors in the water.
The images are printed with acid dye inks on silk charmeuse and chiffon and are layered and hung freely to preserve the fluidity of the silk. As such, the series is a combination of abstract photography and an alternative printing process that combines photography and textile art. Printing on silk is crucial to my vision. The silk is used to mimic the fluidity of the water being photographed. By printing on two different types and weights of silk and hanging the two layers three to four inches apart, I am able to create the illusion of three dimensions, much like what we experience when we look down into a body of water. The final prints are forty by sixty inches and suspended in the air, approximately four inches apart. The chiffon is translucent, and the charmeuse print hanging behind it can be seen through the chiffon. The layering of the silks provides a three-dimensional look at the water reflections, just as one can look into and through the water that reflects the natural world. The prints in my portfolio are printed to scale at twelve by eighteen inches on Hahnemuhle Museum Etching.
Coming to this project as a straight nature photographer, I sometimes find myself slipping back to my previous orientation and questioning whether what I am creating is really art or whether I am simply spending an inordinate amount of time and money playing with cameras and software. I sometimes find myself wondering if I am making the right choices, if what I am creating is truly art or something no better than what my daughter’s four year old students make in her classroom. Are these images I call abstract art really art, or are they like the paintings that the animals at Riverbanks Zoo “created” by stepping in paint and then walking across blank paper. Those images sold quite well at a fund-raising auction for the zoo, but in my mind they were much more of a novelty than works of art.
However, I believe it is our responsibility as human beings to strive to become the best that we can be, regardless of the path we choose in life. That search for personal excellence is often neither easy nor comfortable. If we choose to always do only those things that are easy and comfortable, it is unlikely that we will grow intellectually, emotionally or artistically. We must sometimes take the more difficult path to reach that place of personal excellence that we hope to find. It is on my own personal path toward personal growth that I have encountered the question of what is and what is not art. This question is not a new one. It has been discussed for decades, possibly even for as long as man has created art. I have learned that the value of art lies in the relationship between lines, colors and form, and that is what I show in my images. It is those relationships that give credence to my work.
Succeeding in the world of fine art requires the artist to think creatively, to develop unified bodies of work unlike what has come before him or her. Replicating what someone else has already done, no matter how good that replication may be, is still just a copy of someone else’s work. Part of learning to be a true artist is learning how to push oneself, to work outside one’s comfort zone, to continually strive for new and different ways of approaching one’s area of interest.
Perhaps the most important technique that I use in “Water Colors” is abstraction. In abstract photography, the photographer reduces the subject to colors, patterns and textures so that the original subject is no longer discernable. What remains in the frame is only a small part of the whole. That small section of textures, colors and patterns has been abstracted from the larger image.
Photographing water reflections requires a different understanding of light than photographing almost any other subject. For my work, light does not so much illuminate my subject as it creates it. Understanding how this works requires more than an understanding of basic photographic lighting techniques. Instead, it looks to physics for an explanation of how and when reflections are created. Time of day, time or year, or more precisely the angle of the sun’s light, affects the appearance of reflections and determines how strong those reflections will be.
It is often difficult to capture reflections in summer, because the sun is more directly overhead than it is in the other seasons. Likewise, it is difficult to capture reflections in the middle of the day. If the sun is directly overhead, reflections are often almost nonexistent. The rays of the sun hit the surface of the water and bounce directly back up in the same direction. Also, glare from the midday sun reduces visible reflections. When the water is in shadow, the reflections are most distinct. It is almost as if the darker the water, the brighter the reflection. When the water being photographed is in shadow because of the terrain around the water, the filtered light on the shadowed water can also create reflections, even at other times of the day.
The surface of the water has a huge impact on the outcome of the image. For most landscape images incorporating reflections, the smoother the surface of the water is, the more desirable the reflection. When the surface of the water is glass-like, the reflection is like a “mirror image” of the surroundings. Movement of the water distorts the reflection. However, if an abstract image is the desired result, ripples in the surface of the water are desired. For my work, water movement is almost a requirement. I have tried to photograph reflections on a pond or lake on a windless day. The resulting images appear reversed and upside down, but other than that, they give no indication that they are reflections. Although I have been known to create my own movement in the water, movement created naturally by a breeze or waterfowl creates images with a much more pleasing appearance.
When the water is perfectly calm, it acts as a mirror and presents a “perfect” reflection of the objects being reflected. Although mirror-like reflections are not necessarily unattractive, they are not abstract. It is the movement of the water that creates the abstraction. If there is too much wind, or if the current is very strong, what is seen is the movement of the water (ripples, waves, etc.) instead of reflections. It is gentle movement, created by a light breeze or a slowly moving river or stream that creates the nicest abstractions.
I have been drawn to water for as long as I can remember. It is all around us. It is in the air that we breathe, it is under the ground where we walk, it is in the oceans, lakes, swamps, and marshes on this round ball we all call home. It has been a part of us since conception. Semen carrying the sperm that generates new life is 96 percent water. The amniotic fluid surrounding that new life begins as 99 percent water. The body at birth is approximately 75 percent water and remains around 60% for the rest of our lives. Without water, life as we know it could not exist. We may live for weeks or months without other nutrients, but without water, we can survive only a few days. Water flows through our veins as the water on our planet flows through its rivers and streams. Water is found in all its forms on earth: in the mists and fog in the air, in the oceans and marshes, swamps and jungles, rivers and streams, glaciers and permafrost on earth’s surface, and underground beneath our feet. Science tells us we cannot survive without that amazing combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Yet, we take it for granted.
For thousands of years, people have believed in the healing powers of water. In times of pain, be it physical, mental, emotional or spiritual trouble, many of us find ourselves drawn to water. We may not even consciously acknowledge that force that pulls us toward water’s healing energy. Yet it is there. If we allow ourselves to give in to that primal urge that draws us back to the source of energy that sustained us, even before birth, we are rewarded with the soul cleansing power of nature’s gift to man.
This project has spanned a number of years. I began this project a dark time in my life, as I struggled to battle the depression resulting from the unexpected death of my thirty-year marriage. I began using photography as a means of therapy. I found a peace behind the camera that I found nowhere else. I began documenting my journey from depression to what I hoped would become a place where I could see the world as a good place to be again. I am no longer in that dark place, and I am not interested in photographing the gloom that surrounded me. Instead, I create images that better reflect where I find myself now. I am happy. Like everyone else, I have good days and bad days, times when I am angry, hurt, etc., and those times creep into my work. However, most days are good days, and the colors in my photographs reflect that. Traditionally, different colors have been assigned different meanings. This is not something that has influenced me. Instead, I photograph colors that reflect my personal mood. I photograph colors as they speak to me. Whether they speak to my viewers in the same ways they speak to me is not important. Instead, I leave that to up them. Art allows us to see what we want to see in someone else’s creations. Of course, I want my images to speak to my viewers, but what they say is between the images and the viewers.

Margaret vB Smith
PO Box 607 Bishopville, SC 29010
www.vanbulckphotography.com
margaret@vanbulckphotography.com
803.491.7791 (cell) | 803.428.3328 (home)

EDUCATION:
Spring 2010 – Present.
MFA – Photography. Academy of Art University, San Francisco,
CA. Anticipated graduation: Spring 2015

1981
MA Economics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

1978
BS in Business Administration, Major in Marketing. University of South
Carolina. Columbia, SC

WORKSHOPS ATTENDED:
Arizona Highways
Navajo Lands and People
BeterPhoto.com
Fine Art Flower Photography
Creating Storytelling Photographs
Creative Nature/Outdoor Photography with Lensbabies
Portfolio Development
Caponigro, John Paul
Fine Art Digital Printing
The Maine Media Workshops
The Photographer's Eye
Vision and Discovery
McDonald., Joe
Lighting for Macro Photography

Nelson,. Mark
Photopolymer Gravure & Precision Digital Positives
Rocky Mountain School of Photography
Photoshop for Photographers
Wildlife Up Close
Photoshop Level III:
Photoshop for the Nature Photographer
Santa Fe Workshops
Raw Capture
Nikon Digital SLR
Raw Processing
A Natural Eye
A Natural Eye: The Winter Landscape
Portraits Unplugged
Black and White Capture to Print
Mastering Flash
Soloway, Eddie
Alumni Maine Photographic Experience
Alumni Buffalo River Photographic Experience

EXHIBITS, SHOWS and AWARDS:
2014
“Photography2014,” Art Trail Gallery, Florence, SC.
“Dynamic Colors,” Arteziana International Textile and Fibre Arts
Competition, Honorable Mention.
“A Dream or a Memory,” St. Louis Artist Guild Juried Exhibition
Inclusion in ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE & FIBRE ART

2008 - 2014
Island Art Gallery. Pawleys Island, SC

2010
Piccolo Spoleto Juried Outdoor Crafts Show. Juried. Charleston, SC
Piccolo Spoleto Indoor Juried 2-D Art Exhibition. Charleston, SC
Art Trail Gallery, Juried Photography Exhibition, "Best Animal." Florence, SC


2009
40th Annual Golden Isles Fine Arts and Fine Crafts Festival. Juried. 2nd Place: Fine Art. St. Simons Island, GA
Arts Alive Festival. Juried. Florence, SC
Art Trail Gallery, Juried Photography Exhibition, "Best Animal." Florence, SC

2008 - 2009
Sumter County Gallery of Art, Solo Exhibition, "Sanctuary," Sumter, SC

2008
Florence Museum, 55th Annual Pee Dee Regional Art Competition and
Exhibition. Juried. Florence, SC

2007
McCrory Galleri, Solo Exhibition, "Glimpses into the Soul" Columbia, SC

2006
Cotton Museum, Photography Exhibit. Bishopville, SC

2005
Umteenth Gallery, Photography Exhibit, University of South Carolina-Sumter.
Juried. Sumter, SC
Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival. Juried. Decatur, GA
Little River Shrimp and Jazz Festival. Juried. "Best in Show." Little River,
SC

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (PHOTOGRAPHY):

2010
Lecture/Workshops, Art Trail Gallery. Florence, SC
Composition
Landscape Composition
Macro and Close-Up Photography,
Visual Arts Intensive: "The Art of Photography," McCrory Galleri. Columbia,
SC.

2009
Lecture/Workshops, Art Trail Gallery. Florence, SC
Composition of Photographs
Using Natural Light in Nature Photography
Creative Photography: Shadows and Reflection

PUBLICATIONS AS AUTHOR:
“Snowy Owls”, Bits and Pixels, Currents, The Magazine of the North America
Nature Photography Association. Spring 2013
“What’s That?” Currents, The Magazine of the North America Nature
Photography Association, Summer, 2011
“Strand-feeding Dolphins of the South Carolina Lowcountry,” Sandlapper
Magazine, Spring 2012
“Monarchs in the Carolinas,” Camera in the Wild, Quarterly Magazine of the
Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association, Winter 2012
“When Photographing in the Wild Just Isn’t Happening,” Camera in the Wild,
Quarterly Magazine of the Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association,
Fall 2011
“Searching for Wild Mustangs: My Dream of Photographing the Elusive
Horses Running Free Was Finally Becoming Real,” Currents, The
Magazine of the North America Nature Photography Association, Summer
2011
“Carolina Lowcountry,” Nature Photographer, Summer 2011
“Angel Oak,” Showcase of Landscape Images, Camera in the Wild, Quarterly
Magazine of the Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association, Summer
2011
“Artistic Expression with Autumn Images,” Camera in the Wild, Quarterly
Magazine of the Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association, Winter
2010 Handbook Edition
“South Carolina's Best Kept Secret," Fore 'n' Aft, Newsletter of Long Bay
Power Squadron, Vol 51, Issue 6
“South Carolina: Home at Last," Fore ‘n’ Aft, Vol 50, 8
“The Odyssey — Homeward Bound”, ‘Fore ‘n’ Aft, Vol 50, Issue 8
“Martin, Max and Margaret: Alone At Sea --The Saga Continues", Fore
‘n’ Aft, Vol 50, Issue 7
“Follow That Byrd", Fore 'n' Aft, Vol 50, issue 6, August 2009, Vol 51, Issue 8



PHOTOGRAPHIC PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

Field Contributor, Nature Photographer Magazine
Member, Society for Photographic Education
Member, North American Nature Photographers Association
Member, Carolinas Nature Photographers Association
Member, National Association of Photoshop Professionals
Member, Atlanta Photography Group
Member, The Light FactoryMember, Alternative Photography.com
Member, National Stereoscopic Association
Member, Alternative Photography
Member, Nikonian
Member, South Carolina Nature-Based Tourism Association

OTHER TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

2014 – Present
Adjunct Instructor of Accounting, Central Carolina Technical College, Sumter,
SC

1983 - 1992
Instructor of Economics and Statistics, University of South Carolina - Sumter,
(part and full time), Sumter, SC

1979 - 1981
Instructor of Economies, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, NC

PREVIOUS PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
2006 - Present
Owner, Van Bulck Photography, Bishopville and Pawleys Island, SC

1988 - 2009
Partner, Van Bulck and Company, CPAs. Sumter, SC

1985 - 1988
Partner, West and Van Bulck, CPAs, Sumter, SC
1982 - 1985
Accountant with L. Allen West, CPA, Sumter, SC

OTHER PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

Member, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Member, South Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants