Dennis Stierer

For over 40 years, Dennis Stierer (b. 1947) has been making compelling images of our fragile landscape. Dennis is a self-taught photographer who enjoys being out by himself, watching the light, especially soft light, and how that elusive quality of light is captured in his beautiful images. Regardless of the subject – a person, a stone, a tree, or the landscape – it is the light that falls on these subjects that he is working to capture. Dennis believes that being in the moment with your surroundings, images will find you. When they do, he seizes the moment and lets the light bring them to life, to glow, and when that happens, his photograph is created. He is there to see, to be in the moment, press the shutter release, and share the experience through the final print. For Dennis, working with a camera is contemplation, relaxation, ”Right Seeing.”

During the years 2012-2020, Dennis worked with a large format film camera on a project about the Erie Canal, the Cayuga/Seneca Canal, the Oswego Canal, and the Champlain Canal. He made thousands of images, taught five different workshops along the historic Erie Canal, and then self-published a book entitled ‘Spirit of the Ditch.” In 2018, the Burchfield Penney Art Center received 49 platinum/palladium prints from this project for their permanent collection.

Dennis is a member of the Western New York Artists Group and the Buffalo Society of Artists, where he was a two-term past-president. His photographs are treasured in many private and permanent collections.