John Ashley | “Curious by Nature”
Published: July 13, 2011
Photographer John Ashley's images are on display Aug. 4-30 at Stumptown Art Studio in Whitefish in "Curious by Nature."
Ashley, who lives “at end of the road” near Kila, with his wife and business partner, Tracy, first used a camera to help him finance his college education. More than three decades later, photography is still central to his livelihood.
In 1977, Ashley’s grandmother gave him $200 to start his college fund. Instead, he used the money to buy his first 35mm camera, and used the camera to put himself through college. He earned a biology degree from The University of Montana, and became an award-winning photojournalist at newspapers in Florida and Montana.
By 1982, he was ranked by the National Press Photographers' Association as one of the top three photojournalists in the southeastern United States.
But Ashley says the frantic, deadline-driven lifestyle lost out to the more humble call of the natural world. He worked as a biologist for many years, mostly with the National Park Service, and contributed to efforts to conserve California condors, bald eagles and, his favorite, harlequin ducks.
Ashley recently completed the circle by combining both of his passions – photography and conservation – in the form of fine art photography. His images evoke the natural beauty and humor of wild places and wild critters.
“What I love about this job is when a wild animal chooses to allow me into his personal space,” he writes on his blog. “It's sort of like saying, ‘You're OK, so I'm going to ignore you now and do whatever I would be doing if you weren't here.’ Whenever this happens, it always makes those moments – and the resulting images – stand apart … Animal behavior can be a subtle thing, but sometimes those nuances can show through and render the camera invisible.”
For more information, visit www.johnashleyfineart.com.
