Gabe DeWitt – Artist, Engineer, Mountaineer.

Gabe’s art extends through many styles and mediums: concrete, bronze, steel, wood, ink, watercolor, acrylic, and oil to name a few. A graduate of West Virginia University, with BS in Civil Engineering and a minor in Studio Art, he has acquired a wealth of knowledge as part of his creative process. While drawing and painting have always been a strong passion in Gabe’s artistic carrier, in the last 10 years photography has become a larger focus for his creative expression, along with the tools of the trade.

”In general, my work focuses on the dynamic universe, big and small, it’s all so wonderful to perceive and think about. I try and capture perspectives that can extend beyond the boarders of the frames containing them.”

Gabe’s thoughts toward photography: “Everything is at least 4th dimensional (3 spacial + time), so to think of something in a photo as a frozen 3D object is an abstraction of the way things really are, and also of a what a photograph actual contains per the information stored within it. I try and convey time and space simultaneously, as in the end they are one and the same. Pictures are strange things…for starters they’re flat, planer, 2-dimensional. But, what the eye sees in a photo is something that appears to have spacial properties, color gradients unfold the depth of a flat 2D photo. What’s even more fun to think about is that there’s also time/movement always being captured in a photograph (all photos capture segments of time, 1/100 of a second, 1/1000 of a second, 5 seconds, etc). Something like the blur of a child running is an example of this additional information/dimension being captured by a photograph. The human eye sees a 2D object, a physical photograph or computer screen, but the mind builds and entire moment around what is perceived to be space and possibly motion (depending on whats being photographed).

Life seems to be all about the communication of information by folding it up in efficient ways as to be unfolded/expanded later for interpretation/use. I try to see how much ‘DNA’ I can capture in a photograph, how much information can be folded down onto a plane of presentation, transported from my eye/mind, to then be unraveled/unfolded/expanded by the eyes/minds of those I share my work with.

Photos are a saturation of a time that was once the present, of something the once happened now, and I feel that a photograph can forever encapsulate some of the the available electromagnetic radiation/information of a 4th dimensional moment, or spacetime.

Per my method toward madness :P I try and plan on the unplanned, removing expectation from my work. With that mind, I take away more from an experience (good & bad). There is a raw pleasure that comes from finding things out through experience, as well as a lasting fulfillment of self that comes from sharing the knowledge gained.”

This photo blog is a collection of Gabe’s adventure photography and artwork, capturing unique angles of perception of this human experience.