After a lengthy hiatus, the Southern Light Gallery at Amarillo College springs back from dormancy this fall with a photography exhibit that’s garden fresh, albeit hardly garden variety.
The imagery of veteran photographer Steve Goff will be on display from Aug. 31 through Oct. 5 at the gallery, which is located on the first floor of the Ware Student Commons at AC’s Washington Street Campus.
Titled Flora Domestica, the exhibit features images from an ongoing project in which Goff photographs flora in his own Odessa, Texas garden by isolating them against homemade backgrounds.
“The plants are never pulled from our yard and photographed in a studio,” Goff says. “They stay connected to our Mother Earth.”
Goff creates the images with a cell phone camera using the Hipstamatic app.
“I’m very fond of the beautiful stylized look, the selected focus and soft tones in my chosen camera app and selection of lens and film” he said. “The combination reflects my connection and love for 19th century photography.”
Goff, who has taught photography at Odessa College since 1984, is a past nominee for the Texas State Artist Award. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Ohio University and taught at Cleveland State University and elsewhere in Ohio before moving to Texas.
He has been awarded the Aid to Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council and the Fellowship Award in Photography from the Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts. Goff represented the Fellowship winners at Mois de la Photo in Paris, France.
Goff was the recipient in 2017 of the Odessa College Honors Educator of the Year Award and currently serves as a director on boards for the Texas Photographic Society and the Odessa Arts council.
For more information about the Steve Goff photo exhibit or the Southern Light Gallery, please contact René West, associate professor of photography, at rwest@actx.edu or 806-345-5654.
-Amarillo College
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