Gifford Ewing
Little Calf Island, Acadia National Park
In 1970, while serving in the USAF based in Oklahoma and Thailand, Gifford Ewing discovered photography. A New England native, he says, “There was something incredible about the vastness of the prairies and the West.” His first camera was a Honeywell Pentax 35 mm and he began using it in earnest when he was invited to try out for and got the job at the Altus Times-Democrat. This was followed with a move west to Denver, CO in 1972.
After working for Merrick & Co in the aerial photography department, he left to open Gifford Ewing Photography, serving the advertising and architectural communities and earning a reputation as one of the region’s finest photographers. Largely self-taught, Ewing turned his natural talent and passion for imagery into a thriving business. Although Ewing no longer practices commercial photography, he does continue the work he loves - black and white film photography of varied landscapes.
Ewing has captured American landscapes from east to west, mostly in Maine and the Rocky Mountain region, as well as the UK, Europe, The Galápagos Islands, and the African continent. Each location displays what Ewing calls the artistic forms created by a landscape: the texture of the land, and the tones and interplay of light in pristine environments. From his black and white negatives, Ewing creates fine art archival silver prints. Through his lens, these images become peaceful, mysterious, and evocative.
Ewing generally shoots with a wooden, 5-by-7 Deardorff wooden field camera. He then develops and prints all of his images using archival silver gelatin paper finishing them in selenium to bring out the richness and to add to the archival qualities. “I enjoy the more traditional photographic methods in my work,” he said. “They serve the purity and natural beauty of the landscape.”Unlike the hundreds of frames available in digital photography, “everything is slow in my world,” Ewing said. “You are composing your shot like a painter paints.”
Ewing’s work has been chosen to be part of the decor at Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, and Residence Inn hotels. His work is also part of the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, The Flour Mill Lofts, Holland & Hart legal offices, numerous private collectors. He is also exhibited in numerous corporate, public and private collections throughout the world.
