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Kettering resident’s works  feature beauty, history of Armenia

Photographers’ landscapes capture haunting beauty, hidden shapes

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By Pamela Dillon, Contributing Writer 12:03 PM Sunday, October 23, 2011

Take a sojourn to Armenia without the 21-hour flight and resulting jet-lag. International cultural photographer Robert Breen will take you there.

First, visit Stivers School for the Arts to see 12 of his landscapes that he captured in 40 days while in that small country last February and April. Then, take the five-minute drive to the Roesch Library at the University of Dayton to see 30 more intimate looks at the people and church/monastery interiors.

“Armenia has a stark, haunting beauty. You are mesmerized by the visual aspects of it,” said Breen, a Kettering resident. “But what holds you there, and keeps you coming back are the smiling faces of the people.”

If you can’t make it to the actual exhibits, you can search his website. You’ll not only see all of his images, you’re treated to the beautiful music of Armenia. The size of Maryland, this mountainous spot on the globe is surrounded by Turkey, Georgia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Azerbaijan, Iran and Nakhchivan.

Breen’s images of that landlocked country are peaceful and beautiful, with poignant, hilarious or death-defying stories behind them. For instance, on his second trip to Armenia, he visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial. It commemorates April 24, 1914, when 80 percent of the Armenian people were murdered during the Turkey Project. Three images depict a self-portrait of him at the memorial at 5 a.m., another gentleman visitor, and mourners walking in as the sun is rising.

Breen earned his bachelor’s degree from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He is a North Carolina Wildlife Photographer of the Year award recipient. His photographs have been published in many periodicals, including Our State North Carolina magazine, Wildlife In North Carolina magazine, Carolina Women, Cary Magazine and Chapel Hill News.

The closest image that Tom Patterson has to Breen in subject and style is his photograph of “Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood” in St. Petersburg, Russia. His perspective is quite different, however. You can feel quite small looking at it, because the vertical shot starts from the ground up. Many of his other works are nature macros, aviation images, or landscapes.

Some of Patterson’s 24 photographs he’s presenting at Stivers explore shapes and patterns hidden within Wyoming’s magnificent landscape. He investigates quiet pools of refracted sunlight, patterns formed by mineral deposits, shapes formed by erosion, and the breathtaking sunrises and moonlight in Wyoming. Two works are particularly mesmerizing — contemporary dancers appearing to defy gravity.

Patterson was born in Dayton and attended Sinclair Community College and Wright State University. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1989 with a bachelor’s in wildlife management. He has published two books as a photographer with author Susan W. Thrane: “County Courthouses of Ohio” and “Statehouses: America’s 50 State Capitol Buildings.”

Contact contributing writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com.