Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Buelteman

One of the photographs in the Montalvo exhibit is 'Djerassi Day's End.'

Photo exhibit documents 18 days

Black and white prints at Montalvo

By Shari Kaplan

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."

Although naturalist and writer John Muir wrote this in 1938, it still rings true today, especially for Bay Area artist and photographer Robert Buelteman, who is exhibiting a collection of recent nature photographs called "Eighteen Days in June" at The Gallery at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga.

The black-and-white prints--many reminiscent of Ansel Adams in their quality, crisp detail and engaging themes--are a result of Buelteman's 18-day artist residency at the Djerassi Artist Colony in Woodside. Taking advantage of the creative respite, Buelteman trekked through the surrounding fields, hills and "forest wilderness," documenting scenes of nature through patient photographic techniques and film sensitive to infrared radiation.

"The solitude and silence of the resident-artist experience allows time for reflection not possible in the outside world," Buelteman explains of the gift of time his residency afforded him. "In our preoccupation with the day-to-day struggle to keep afloat, it's easy to avoid asking questions whose answers challenge the sleeping mind."

While seeking those answers for 18 days, Buelteman took many photographs, the best of which he enlarged as silver-selenide gelatin prints. The Montalvo gallery has 14 of them, all available for purchase.

"Djerassi Day's End" shows rolling hills whose grasses and terraced terrain are lit from above by the late afternoon sun. Delicate, wispy clouds--some of which look almost like flames--rise above the hills.

In "Secrets," an old tree trunk or log is crisscrossed by thin, lacy fingers of fungi or moss. Sunlight and shade from the forest overhead dapples the wood, while in the left foreground the trailing leaves of a plant creep over as though curious to take a look. Perhaps this log harbors the secret of foxfire--a colored, luminescent glow caused by gasses released by decaying wood and plant material. Because foxfire requires specific conditions to put on its display, it's a rare find.

"Julie Staccioli #1" is also a rare sight. How often does one come across a monolith, several stories tall, in the middle of lush woodlands and meadows? Even less common is the presence of a woman kneeling at the base of the structure as though in reverence.

Another unusual structure, this one formed by nature, is seen in "Untitled (Allen Lookout)." Within a rock formation found in the middle of the woods is a hollow opening, or windcave, resembling a large pair of lips. More thick forest is visible on the other side.

Buelteman uses his light-sensitive film to impart a beautiful translucent quality to tree foliage in several prints. Among the most spectacular is "Grace," in which the thick needles of a towering redwood tree, seen from below, appear as white as newly fallen snow.

The exhibit runs through Aug. 16. One of Buelteman's coffee-table books of nature photography, 'The Unseen Peninsula,' is also on display. The Gallery, located at 15400 Montalvo Road, is open Wednesday through Friday, 1-4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and prior to Montalvo concerts. For more information, call 961-5813.

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