Rich Bergeman, More Than Meets the Eye

January 27 – March 17, 2023
Opening Reception Friday, January 20, 4-7pm

Umpqua Valley Arts Center
1624 West Harvard Ave., Roseburg, OR 97471
Tuesday – Friday 10am-6pm
uvarts.com
541-672-2532

An exhibit of 25 recent works by Corvallis photographer Rich Bergeman explores the transformative effects of infrared light on a variety of Northwest landscapes, including Oregon’s High Desert, the Cascades, the Central Coast, and the Willamette Valley.

The show gets its title, “More Than Meets the Eye,” from the fact that the infrared spectrum lies outside the normal human visible light range. Infrared cameras record vegetation and other organic objects as glowing highlights, and inorganic landscape features, like water and blue sky, as deep dark values.

“Over the past 30 years I’ve been learning how to see and express myself with a variety of different camera types and processes,” Bergeman said. “Infrared, which I took up seven years ago, is my current addiction. It has a hauntingly beautiful quality that can transform otherwise ordinary views of the land, sea and sky into something magical.”

A retired instructor of photography and journalism at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, OR, Bergeman has been exhibiting his photography throughout the Northwest since the 1980s. Originally a large-format film photographer and darkroom printer in silver and platinum, he currently works primarily with digital infrared cameras and archival pigment printers.