Biography

Brett Kosmider has been crafting images with cameras, both motion and still, for more than a decade. His early compositional instincts were encouraged even a decade earlier by his parents, with whom Brett credits with his introduction to nature and photography.

He grew up within three miles of Lake Michigan near Milwaukee, Wisconsin and spent summers in Door County, Wisconsin. Close contact with the wild places of the Door Peninsula lead to his deep appreciation of Great Lakes regional culture and its environment.

Over the years Brett has traveled extensively with his camera throughout the Great Lakes basin and North America, creating images along the way. The American Southwest was, and continues to be, one of Brett's many muses. After attaining a Bachelor's degree in Film and Television production in Wisconsin, Brett found the arid landscapes of Arizona to be a welcome change of place. After five years of living in the American Southwest, Brett and his wife Jennifer moved back to the upper-Midwest where Minneapolis is currently home.

Artist Statement

Formal schooling taught me the "rules" of photography and how to make an ideal photograph. The correct film choice combined with proper aperture and exposure produced the perfect shot. I lived within those rules for many years before realizing the freedom of stepping outside of those boundaries to fulfill the vision within me. I started to break the rules and a world of new possibilities opened before me.

My photography explores the rhythms of nature; its cadence and meter; its many moods and gestures. I rely on the mercurial Great Lakes weather to sculpt the light, which contributes to the overall spirit of my compositions. Where some people see a wave, I see a sublime white fog - the combined effect of fifty waves crashing ashore. All of the ghostly effects some would assume are created in a computer are accomplished by carefully calculating an extended exposure onto photographic film. Most of my exposures are from five to ten minutes each. I feel these patterns of motion are the true language of the landscape and go largely unnoticed in a 24/7 society.

In pursuit of my vision I often rise before dawn chasing the light to the fringes of the day. I'm drawn to wild places, where wind and waves have sculpted the landscape for thousands of years; places where no signs of civilization can be heard nor seen.

Through my unique vision I hope the viewer comes to appreciate the essentiality of wild places and their role in a developed society.

 

Brett Kosmider
May 2006

Exhibitions

44th Annual Juried Exhibition, Francis Hardy Center for the Arts, Ephraim, WI
June 2nd - July 9th, 2006

46th Annual Juried Exhibition, Francis Hardy Center for the Arts, Ephraim, WI
"Juror's Award" for Laricina
June 7th - July 13th, 2008