About - Landscape/Fine Art Photographer

Bruce William Maki

Bruce is a landscape/fine art photographer and naturalist. His interest in landscape photography was sparked as a young geologist observing and studying natural features of the environment. Much of Bruce’s work is within the Great Lakes area. His studio Juniper Hill Garret, where photograph post-production, printing, and framing takes place is located in a converted chicken coop on a Victorian era farm in Emerson Township, Michigan.

Bruce's photography attempts to capture not just the beauty of the natural environment, but to create images that reflect human experience and common bonds. Loneliness and isolation are common themes as well as strength, hope, and joy. Perhaps the best way of thinking when viewing Bruce's photographs is with consideration of the Haitian proverb "deye mon, gen mon" – “behind mountains, more mountains”.

Artists Statement:

道

/dào/

Chasing the Tao

I’ve been fascinated by Eastern philosophy since encountering it as a young man in a translation of the I Ching. In particular, the idea of the Tao, this creative presence in the world that can never be captured or described, but only leaves us evidence of where its been such as in the aesthetic impact of clouds, twisting vines, the form of trees, sunsets, crystals of ice, and of course in the arts themselves. I once read, – “The Creator made the world, and the Tao makes it beautiful”. This idea of spontaneous beauty greatly influences my landscape and art photographs and I find the line between the two blurred. At times I use landscape photographs as the basis for experimentation with overlays filtering, and projections. But I do not use AI scene modification as it seems contrary to what I’m trying to accomplish. I chase the Tao in the imprecise geometry found in landscapes, in the spontaneity of images hastily framed in moving train windows, in the kinetic energy of moving objects, light trails, reflections, and in the beauty at times inherent in these imperfect attempts. To me it seems a matter of coaxing, prodding, almost fooling these images into the present and I have found the camera plays the lesser role. Any camera will do. Whether taken by my cell phone or with an expensive camera the result is the same when the chase is successful.

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