RESUME   SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: I have been in over 100 shows since my first exhibition in 1974. 2010:   Path of Beauty, Artistic Adventures in the Grand Canyon, Mary Williams            Fine Arts, Boulder, CO.            Path of Beauty, Singing the Grand Canyon, Broomfield Auditorium 2009:   The Ditch Project, 150 Years of Irrigation Ditches, Boulder Public Library 2008:   “Geezography: 300 years of Photography,” Mercury Gallery, Boulder. 2008:   “Magnum Mysterium,” North Boulder Recreation Center.            “Couples Show,” Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder.            Open Studios Art Tour, Boulder.            Voices III, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Arts. 2007:    “Canyonlands,” North Boulder Recreation Center, CO.             Open Studios, Boulder, CO.             “Mysteries of the Landscape” The Swiss Chalet, Boulder, CO.             “Open Space and Mountain Parks,” East Boulder Recreation Center.             “I Love Boulder,” University of Colorado UMC Gallery. 2006:    “Voices II: Perspectives of the Artistic Soul, Exhibitrek The Gallery,             Boulder, CO.             Open Studios, Boulder, CO.             “Nuts and Bolts,” Dairy Center for the Visual Arts, invitational exhibit,             Boulder, CO. 2005:    “Art Aids ’05,” Boulder County Aids Project, Boulder, CO.             “Roots,” Mercury Framing, Boulder, CO.             Open Studios, 2005, Boulder, CO.             “Roots,” North Boulder Recreation Center, CO.             “Voices I,” Perspectives of the Artistic Soul, Exhibitrex Gallery, Boulder             “Nuts and Bolts,” Dairy Center for the Visual Arts, invitational exhibit 2004:    “Corridors of Water, Seas of Stone,” Radius Gallery, Lakewood             Heritage Center Visitor Center, Lakewood, CO.             “Roots,” Mercury Gallery, Boulder, CO.             “Open Space Portfolio,” Bridge Gallery, Boulder Public Library.             Open Studios, 2004, Boulder, CO.             Wilderness Land Trust, private exhibition.             “Nuts and Bolts,” Dairy Center for the Visual Arts, invitational exhibit,             Boulder, CO.             “Open Space Portfolio,” Mikes Camera, Boulder, CO. 2003:    “Recent Work,:” Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO.            Open Studios, Boulder, CO.            “Nuts and Bolts,” Dairy Center for the Visual Arts, invitational exhibit           Natures Own, Boulder, CO. 2002:  Open Studios, Boulder, CO. 2001:  “8th Annual Diamonds & Spurs” Invitational Charity Art Auction,          Boulder,          Boulder County Watershed Forum, invitational show, Boulder Public          Library.          Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO. (May-Aug) 2000: Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO: "Rivers, The Song of Life";          7th Annual Diamonds & Spurs invitational Fund raiser          BoulderOpen Studios Art Tour          Denver Art Museum: "The West  Since Yesterday" 1999: Open Studios          Diamonds & Spurs 1998:  Foothills Art Center: "Canyon Walls"          National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 1992: Grand Canyon National Park, Visiting Artists Series 1991: Environmental Images 1991, Boulder Art Center         Grants Pass Museum of Art, Oregon 1990: Boulder Artists Gallery, "4-Photographers"          Boulder Arts Center, "My Very Best" 1989: The Durango Photographic Salon          Visual Eyes "89          "First Night" Boulder, Colorado          Gallery 44, Boulder,  "Arts To Your Hearts Content" 1988:  "Colorado Photo." Photo Mirage Gallery, Denver          Sandy Carson Gallery, Denver          "Art Zone." Jewish Community Center, Denver 1987:  Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, Boulder County Photographs Show. 1985:  "Images of the Southwest", Leroux Street Gallery, Flagstaff, Arizona          Eagle Valley Arts Council 7th Annual Invitational 1984: Eclipse Gallery, Boulder, Colorado 1983: Hills Gallery, Denver, Colorado 1981: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 1980: The Maine Photographic Workshop 1971: The Art Dealer, Lyons, Colorado.  (my first show!)   PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The Denver Art Museum Department of M.C. D. Biology, University if Colorado Department of Earth Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder The Council of State Governments, San Francisco State of Colorado, Department of Corrections SELECTED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS: A.R. Wilfley & Sons, Denver; Bank of America, California; Channel & Chaffin, Designers, Denver;  Chuck Worthington, Architects, Denver;  Colorado Outward Bound School;  Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, Denver;  Kaiser Foundation, California; Keeney Design, Denver;  Levi Strauss & Co, San Francisco;  F.M. Light & Sons, Steamboat Springs, CO;  Penzoil Corp;   Rocky Mountain Energy;  Rolm Corp;  Sunrise Oil Co;  Kaiser Permanente, Denver. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: Arizona Highways;   Boulder Monthly Magazine;  Grand Canyon National Park Calendar;  High Country News;  Kelty;  Mountain Gazette Magazine;  National Geographic Books;  The North Face;  Outside Magaz Pine; Patagonia;   Plateau Magazine;  Rocky Mountain Magazine;  Sierra Club Magazine & Calendars;  Universities of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico presses;  Wooden Boat Magazine. SELECTED CLIENTS: Arizona Raft Adventures;  Armour Welding;  Athenian School;   Colorado Outward Bound School;  Denver Regional Transportation District;  Grand Canyon Natural History Association;  Student Conservation Association. PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS TAUGHT FOR: Anderson Ranch, Snowmass CO; Cloud Ridge Naturalists, CO; Lifelong Learning, Boulder Public Schools;  Mikes Camera; Monument Valley High School;  Naropa Institute, Boulder CO;  Verde Valley School, Sedona, Arizona; Boulder Digital Arts. EDUCATION: BFA, Fine Arts - Photography, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1974 REPRESENTED BY: Camera Obscura, Denver, Colorado Victoria Boyce Galleries, Scottsdale Arizona www.vboycegalleries.com/ Mary Williams Fine Art, Boulder, Colorado

COMMENTS on CHRIS BROWN'S PHOTOGRAPHS

"Christopher Brown's photographs are the result of a unique and intimate relationship with the landscape of the American West. Having been a mountain and river guide for over 30 years, he has walked and rafted to places rarely visited, and has photographed sights seldom seen. His camerawork opens the eyes to see in new ways the subtle colors, sweeping panoramas, and quiet details of this remarkable region.
"Christopher's photographs have been published in many books, calendars, posters and periodicals including Sierra, Arizona Highways, Outside, National Geographic and The Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon. His prints are in many collections throughout the country, including the San Francisco Museum of Moderm Art, the Denver Art Museum and the University of Colorado. He has taught many photography workshops for institutions such as Anderson Ranch, Naropa University and Lifelong Learning.
"Christopher Brown exhibits regularly throughout the West, and maintains a studio/gallery in Boulder, Colorado where he makes and shows his color prints. He works with the Ilfochrome color process, using complex masking techniques to produce prints of exceptional depth and detail, with a subtle palette of colors."
Chris Hoffman, poet, Boulder, CO

"Christopher Brown, friend,Colleague, fine photographer, and master color printer has roamed the West with his camera and unerring eye for natural beauty for three decades. I have high respect for him as an artist and for his ability and creativity in the medium of photography."
Philip Hyde, photographer & author.

"Christopher Brown's consummate skill in seeing and the unmanipulated use of color reflects the honesty of his approach. He does not need to alter what appears on the ground glass of his camera. In our present era of intellectual dishonesty associated with the hype-driven art scene, this single quality presents a refreshing counterpoint."
Dick Arentz, photographer and author.

"Not so much photography as poetry." Ellinor Busch, Busch Gallery, Boulder, CO

BOULDER CREEK WATERSHED ART SHOW -- FEBRUARY, 2001

Loren Eiseley said, "If there is magic on this planet it is contained in water." and this magic is magnetic.
Everyone has a personal mental notion of water inside his head. It may be poetic inspired by a poem such as Ladore, or literary, from Twain’s Huck Finn, or visual, derived from some piece of art which has stuck with you. Close your eyes and make a quick check of what image comes to mind when you think of water.
Art and reality interact and influence each other in elusive ways. We expect (representational) art to represent reality. What we don’t realize is that we unconsciously expect reality to match art! Landscape art, (painting and photography) have set our notions of what nature looks like, and as we think about or look at the landscape-most often we imagine or expect to see something that looks like this notion.
Chances are your mental image of a watershed may be in this show. Hopefully the rest of the art will be different from that, expanding and stretching your notions and thereby enriching your life with something new. If you find yourself thinking: "That doesn’t look like what I think a watershed is..." you are at the boundary between your notion and the artist’s notion. Feel free to step across and share the experience!
"Straight" photography is the art of seeing what is simply before us. We each see the word in our own personal way, and a photographer is committed to expressing his personal view in his prints. Consider for a moment straight photography as the art of seeing what is in front of us, outside us, and painting as the art of presenting images from inside the artist’s head, putting them outside, in front of us. Photography shares a personal view of the external, physical world, exploring it, and teaching us how to see. Painting can explore an internal, personal world and share a view of that world by externalizing it. Both become art if the result is metaphorical, and the viewer’s experience is emotional more than documentary. However, the experience of resonance which many photographers report suggests that he is just looking around for external views which match/resonate with internal views already in his head; and thus there is more in common between painting and photography that one might suppose.
I find water endlessly interesting, variable, and unpredictable to photograph. Some photographs are about the water and some are about what the water sees: reflections of light and other things; or a combination of both.

Moving water changes. When we look at moving water, we sometimes see it with soft eyes: the water is smooth and flowing. A long shutter speed accumulates and merges the shapes into a record of its flowing over time, like soft eyes. When we look at falling water with hard eyes, and move our eyes with the motion of the water, we might see individual droplets and unusual shapes frozen in time. An unusually fast shutter speed will capture sculptural shapes, which only exist for a thousandth of a second, and then are gone forever. Even with a fast finger on the shutter, it is often impossible to know exactly what the film will record at the precise moment of exposure.
The prints I have included in this suite are just several glimpses of moving water that I have passed by in my rambles about. One common element is that the shapes and textures of the water are caused by its movement over rocks, in a continuously changing interaction between the soft and the hard. I often think about Lao Toss’s poem: "What is more fluid, more yielding than water? / Yet back it comes again, wearing down the rigid strength / Which cannot yield to withstand it. / So it is that the strong are overcome by the weak, / The haughty by the humble. / This we know / But never learn...."
Water nourishes us. It is an essential biological and spiritual resource. We must treat it with utmost respect. I love to look at water, listen to it, photograph it, sleep by it, travel on it in boats, over it on skis, and drink it! It’s a source of endless fascination, amusement and contemplation. If I am reincarnated, I want to be a water molecule. I can go almost anywhere and be almost anything. I can fly through the air, flow across the ground, and travel through people’s bodies. I can be an icicle, a snowflake, a drop of rain, a cloud, an ocean, a lake, or a river. "If there is magic on this planet it is contained in water."

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS IN RIVERS: THE SONG OF LIFE
Foothills Art Center, Golden, Colorado
by CHRISTOPHER BROWN, GUEST CURATOR

Loren Eiseley said: "If there is magic on this planet it is contained in water," and this magic is absolutely magnetic. This exhibit is the response of a dozen photographers to our call for images of rivers. You probably have your own personal notion or image of a river inside your own head. It may be inspired by a poem such as Keswick’s The Cataract of Ladore, or Twain’s Huck Finn, or a visual image derived from some piece of art, which has stuck with you. What image comes to mind when you think of rivers? Art and reality interact, and influence each other in elusive ways. We expect representational art to look like reality. What we don’t realize is that we also expect reality to look like art! Landscape art such as painting and photography has established standards of what nature looks like. When we look at the landscape we often expect to see something that looks like art!

Chances are your personal image of rivers will be in this show. Hopefully other photographs will be different from that, expanding and stretching your notion of rivers, and thereby enriching you with something new. If you find yourself thinking: "That doesn’t look like a river..." you are at the boundary between your notions and the artist’s vision. Step across the line and expand your experience! Photography is deceptive. It has been said of photography that it is very difficult precisely because it is so easy. (With modern automatic cameras, with or without film, it is easy to take a photograph that comes out looking good.) "Straight" photography is the art of seeing, and this simple difference is what sets it apart from all other art mediums. We each see the word in our own unique way. To express this personal view of the world requires a commitment to understand one’s place in the universe and one’s attitude towards it and this is a lifelong pursuit. A photographer is committed to expressing his personal vision in his prints, and it takes a huge investment of time and thought to meet this challenge. Most of the photographers in this show have two things in common: they use large format cameras and they make their own prints, both of which enhance the expression of their vision.

As you move through these prints it is easy to look at one, recognize the subject matter, accept it as truth and move on. Looking at photographs is a little like making them: it is difficult precisely because it is so easy. To really see a photograph requires a little effort because it is so easy to dismiss it as being merely documentary. If you ask yourself: Why did the photographer chose this particular subject matter, point of view, composition, and what is he trying to tell us? you may find that the viewing experience becomes richer and more satisfying!

Consider for a moment that straight photography is the art of presenting a vision of what is before and outside of us, and painting is the art of presenting images from inside the artist’s head. Photography shares a personal view of the external, physical world, exploring it and teaching us how to see. Painting explores an internal, personal world and shares a view of that world by externalizing it. (However, many photographers work with "resonance" in which an external view resonates with an internal feeling or concept. The external view is a projection of the photographer’s inner being. In this sense there is more commonality between painting and photography than one might suppose.) Most importantly, either process can produce art when the result is metaphorical, emotional, symbolic, or aesthetic for the viewer.

The digital revolution is now bridging the traditional territories of photography and painting and is upsetting boundaries. Digital art allows an artist to transmorgrify photographic source material to express imaginary concepts. The real and the imaginary, the physical and the mental become intertwined and perhaps indistinguishable. We are witnessing the birth a new art medium, and this is as exciting and unsettling as photography was a hundred years ago. The drama of implausible juxtapositions and the seduction of the shock value of bizarre technical effects will subside as artists learn to harness the potentials of the digital dragon.

This exhibit includes various traditional photographic processes: black and white silver gelatin prints made from black and white negatives; chromogenic (type R-4) and dye destruction (Cibachrome/Ilfochrome) color prints made from color negatives and color transparencies; prints made by enlarger and by the new digital Light Jet printer. The group of prints on this wall illustrates several steps in the transition from "straight photography" into photography involving computers. Each piece is annotated with the process for your information.