Christopher Burkett

Christopher Burkett (born 1951) is an American landscape photographer, known not only for his large format photography of woodlands but also as a craftsman who "makes every print himself with a skill that is unsurpassed"[1]

This article is about the photographer. For the former football player, see Chris Burkett.

Photography

Burkett requires "absolute material accuracy" and has since 1980 evolved into one of the greatest color printers in the history of the medium, creating Cibachrome color prints of unprecedented dimension (40x50) from his brilliant 8x10 transparencies. "The best of Christopher Burkett's photographs have an almost mystical sense of connection to us, one that cannot fully be conveyed through words or reproductions.[2] "All of Christopher's photographs, is able to act across distance, to illumine a viewer standing fifty or a hundred feet away, to transcend the physical dimensions of its frame."[3]

Burkett is also a former brother in an Orthodox Christian religious order who, Vincent Rossi writes, has "transformed photographic technique into a spiritual endeavor."[4]

On April 15, 2018 the PBS national network broadcast a segment about Burkett on NewsHour Weekend. The program states: "There are some photographers who are convinced that the old ways are worth preserving. One of these is Oregon Photographer Christopher Burkett, who works slowly and patiently to create some of the highest resolution photographs every made.[5] Christopher Burkett has been photographing the American landscape for over four decades." "He and his wife, Ruth, have lugged their camera gear across all 50 states." "He says he want to make both the physical and the ethereal accessible." "Light and luminosity are critical elements of Burkett's work." "For Burkett, photography is not just an artistic but a spiritual experience that's informed by his religious faith." And Burkett says: "...going out and photographing is one thing, but spending time bringing the light out of these images to share them with other people is really what it’s all about."[6]

Reviews and awards

Burkett's books and exhibits have been reviewed in the Bloomsbury Review, San Diego Union-Tribune, Washington Post, and Book Reader; an interview with Burkett was published in View Camera magazine.[7] Articles about Burkett have also appeared in Camera Arts, Hasselblad Forum, and Popular Photography.[8] The North American Bookdealers Exchange awarded Burkett's book Intimations of Paradise Best Book of the Year for Art and Photography in 1999[9] and in 2004 he was one of twelve photographers honored with the Hasselblad Masters award for his photography by camera manufacturer Hasselblad.[10]

Life

Burkett was born in 1951, grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and now lives in Oregon. He joined a Christian religious brotherhood in the early 1970s[11] and, in 1975, first became interested in photography as a form of spiritual expression.[12] In 1979 he left the brotherhood and married his wife, Ruth.

Since then he and his wife are Orthodox. Burkett attends the Church of the Annunciation in Milwaukie, which belongs to the Orthodox Church of America (OCA).[13][14]

Notes
  1. Jim Alinder "Paradise Found"
  2. Jim Alinder "Paradise Found"
  3. James Reid "Vital Form and Radiant Light: A Painter Explores the Photographs of Christopher Burkett"
  4. Rossi, V. (1999). "Glimpses of Paradise: Beauty and the Natural World in the Photography of Christopher Burkett". Intimations of Paradise: Photographs by Christopher Burkett. West Wind Arts.
  5. reference 5
  6. PBS video shown on NewsHour Weekend
  7. Articles and interviews Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine collected on Burkett's web site. Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2000. San Diego Union-Tribune, review of exhibit at the Joseph Bellows Gallery, December 16, 1999. Washington Post, two reviews of exhibits at the Kathleen Ewing Gallery, one dated October 28, 1999 and the other date not listed. Book Reader, Fall/Winter 1999. View Camera, date not listed.
  8. References from same web site. Camera Arts, June/July 2004. Hasselblad Forum, 2004, issues 2 and 4. Popular Photography, June 2004.
  9. Award certificate on Burkett's web site Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. British Journal of Photography, Dozen lined up by Hasselblad Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, November 26, 2003.
  11. The date he joined the brotherhood is not listed explicitly in the View Camera Magazine interview from Burkett's web site Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine but can be inferred from the 1979 date he left the order and from the seven years he is said to have spent in it.
  12. View Camera Magazine interview from Burkett's web site Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. Блистательный цвет Кристофера Беркета (+ ФОТО)
  14. Church of the Annunciation

Bibliography
  • Christopher Burkett (1999). Intimations of Paradise: Photographs by Christopher Burkett. West Wind Arts. ISBN 978-0967021607.
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