Ryan Flathau: "Gorges, Glens & Waterfalls" Photography Exhibit

Kellogg Community College beginning this week will exhibit nearly two dozen stunning large-scale black and white landscape photographs created by Photography and Multimedia Program professor Ryan Flathau.

The exhibit, “Gorges, Glens & Waterfalls,” opened Wednesday, Sept. 14, and will run through Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Eleanor R. and Robert A. DeVries Gallery of the Davidson Visual and Performing Arts Center, on campus at 450 North Ave. in Battle Creek. The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular gallery business hours, which are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

An opening reception for the exhibit, also free and open to the public, will be held with the artist from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, in the gallery.

Flathau, who’s been teaching at the College since 2006, created the photos during his Fall 2021 sabbatical to Letchworth and Watkins Glen state parks in New York and Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania. The images are a selection of photographs from his long-term photography project, “Unseen Light,” created using infrared digital cameras with long exposure settings.

“These photographs are meditations on perception and landscape,” Flathau said. “They reflect my own experiences, thoughts and emotions. Each landscape holds a sublime interest, be it the passing clouds, pervasive winds or redemptive light.”

Flathau is a Battle Creek native and KCC alumnus who also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Western Michigan University and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

In addition to giving him time to focus on his art and create the work that makes up his current exhibit, Flathau’s recent sabbatical also supported his teaching, as he followed almost the exact route with his ART 220: Landscape Photography students on their field trip this past summer. That class culminated in an exhibition of work created by the students and Flathau during their trip that ran in the DeVries Gallery through Sept. 8.

For more information about the “Gorges, Glens & Waterfalls” exhibit or other KCC arts events, contact KCC’s Arts and Communication Office at 269-965-4126. Flathau can be reached directly at flathaur@kellogg.edu.