I love to look at the world. Everywhere I look I find something of interest, amazement and beauty. Yet when I look at the world I really mean my world since each of us edits our experience and sees his or her own world. That is the principal reason why I love to look at photographs, my photographs and those of others, because these images allow me to view the world through other people’s eyes.

My views of the world derive from childhood in Nebraska and Louisiana, from a life-long love of mountaineering, from service as astronomer at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, from 39 years of teaching at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and from travels near and far.

You will readily see that I find interesting images all around me, in places both obvious and unexpected. So along with landscapes and flowers are images of industrial scenes and gritty urban landscapes. One gallery called Elementals is devoted to images where the subject is light, air and water. Another gallery Industrial Impressionism finds patterns worthy of modern paintings in images of industrial equipment. Another remembers the rapidly disappearing urban icon of the water tower. 

All of these photographs are founded in a deep affection for and devotion to the natural environment in which amazing and blessed circumstance has placed us. It is to be appreciated, preserved and cared-for. 

I invite you to share my visions of the world and hope that in them you will find both joy and renewed dedication to work for balance between human activity and the natural world.

David M. Solzman, Photographer