Clyde Butcher

Clyde Butcher has been a photographer for over forty years. He started making photographs of the wilderness after his son was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident. Butcher withdrew into the wilderness and found comfort there. He mainly makes pictures of nature that have been untouched by man. He is attempting to preserve the natural landscape that man has not yet destroyed. Many of his photographs are of the Everglades National Park in Florida. When Butcher first started photography, it was not even considered an art and scorned by many critics. He struggled with that fact for a long time, but Butcher’s Photographs have come to be greatly appreciated over the years.

 

Clyde Butcher only shoots his pictures in black and white. That is part of the reason I like his works so much. I think it takes real talent to be able to shoot in black and white because then lighting and angles are so much more important. Sometimes colors are just distracting or disguise poor composition in a photo. Another reason I appreciate his work is because they are of nature. I enjoy the simplicity of the shots, and the single focused subject. The background is never distracting at all. I enjoy shooting nature and still shots. Clyde Butcher prints all of his own shots anywhere from eight inches to eight feet tall. 

Butcher has received many awards for his work. He works for the “Save Our Rivers” program, the Everglades National Park, The Nature Conservatory, The National Audubon Society, and the River Keepers. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Florida Artist Hall of Fame Award, The Humanitarian of the Year in 2005 and many more.

“My experience reinforced my sense of dedication to use my art form of photography as an inspiration for others to work together to save nature's places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations.” - Clyde Butcher