Artist Statement

I am a color landscape photographer and environmentalist.  I currently work digitally and my prints are archival digital prints.  A number of my early photographic projects were straightforward documentary explorations of particular places, influenced by my work as an environmental planner, including a project on the people and environment of the Mendocino Coast of California.  Over time I have moved toward a more personal form of expression.  I strive to evoke the joy that I find in special places that I love, and people as they move through the landscape.  I try to show how our world is transformed by the changing qualities of light and color. I have been influenced by painters such as Giovanni Bellini who have an interest in the spiritual power of light, and a host of photographers including Dorothea Lange, Elliot Porter, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Joel Meyerowitz.  I suppose I could call myself a transcendentalist photographer, influenced by the spiritual sensibility of Henry David Thoreau, who found God expressed in nature.  As a photographer, I follow Henri Cartier-Bresson, who said “We photograpers deal in things that are constantly vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come back again… Our task is to perceive reality, almost simultaneously recording it in the sketchbook which is our camera.”

Much of my work has been in beautiful natural places in New England, where I have  lived and photographed since 1974,  and the American West.  It’s my intent to suggest how nature can nurture us – if we will only look.

My work explores natural processes of change, growth, decay, death, and renewal.   I am fascinated by the consciousness of animals and our connection to them.  One project, “A Day on Lieutenant Island”, a one-person show shown at the Munroe Gallery in Lexington was a series of 18 images in chronological order, showing one day on the beach on this island in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.  The images were displayed as a series of large panels with several images matted together on each, each panel conveying a process of change – sunset, moonrise, tide change, and the death of a shark. 

In 2016 I completed an exhibit shown at the Habitat Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in Belmont, Massachusetts.  This show, entitled “Our Mortal Nature: My Year on the Medicine Wheel”, explores my personal experience of mortality, and was triggered by the death of my mother.  It is a personal documentary of my experiences of beauty and mortality in the 2014-2015 period of a year in which my mother grew ill and died. 

In another recent show, “Beauty in Transit”, I captured moments of beauty in morning and evening light – buildings, people walking, trees, the sky - that I encountered as I commuted to and from Boston. A current project  has grown out of my work with Agape Global Health for Haiti, Inc., a team of volunteers that operates a medical clinic on the island of La Gonave, Haiti.  I prepared a book, “Healing in Haiti: The Work of Agape” from this involvement. I also developed an exhibit of this work shown at Evie Salon Studio in Somerville, MA in October-November 2019 and at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Cambridge in 2020.

 

Resume

ROY CRYSTAL, PHOTOGRAPHER
34 Grapevine Ave., Lexington MA 02421
781-861-1518, cell 339-223-6553
roy@roycrystalphoto.com

Focus of Work:  Fine art landscape and documentary photographer with environmental emphasis.

Education:  1971, B.A., Art  Antioch  College Yellow Springs, Ohio

  • Specialized in photography.  Major concentration in other coursework on environmental science and policy.  Ran photo darkroom.  Work displayed at Dayton Art Institute. Received Watson Foundation Travel Fellowship; did photography in Chile and Israel.

  • Photo seminars with Harvey Stein (Photographing People, Griffin Center for Photography, 2012), Harold Feinstein, Joel Meyerowitz.  Participated in Photographic Resource Center portfolio class with Thomas Gearty, 2007, and Members Portfolio Sharing, 2008.  Studied digital color photography with Christine Rogers at Museum School, Boston.  Documentary Master Class taught by Glenn Ruga of Social Documentary Network, 2019.

Photographic Experience:  1990-Present

  • Roy Crystal, Photographer, Lexington, MA
    Operate photography business specializing in landscape and portrait photography.
    My work has been purchased by institutions and private collectors.  Member, Griffin Center for Photography

One Person Exhibitions and Books: 

  • “Everything is Alive”, at Arlington Center for the Arts, 2020

  • “Women and Water: The Work of Agape”, at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Cambridge, MA, 2020
    previously shown in 2019 at Evie Salon Studio, Somerville, MA.  Previous shows at Cutter Gallery, Arlington, Munro Gallery, Lexington MA. 

  • “The Mendocino Coast” displayed at Antioch College, 1970

  • Completed self-published book, “Healing in Haiti: The Work of Agape”, 2019; posted this project online on Social Documentary Network, 2019, at the Social Documentary Network.

Juried Group Shows and Awards:

  • 10th Juried Show, Griffin Center for Photography; Stebbins Gallery, Winchester, MA. and Artsaround Boston.

  • Concord Art Association; “Overexposure” show juried by Boston Photo Collaborative including work by Emmit Gowin and Neal Rantoul.

  • Violence Transformed, 2010; Extension School Juried Show, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2010.

  • Participated in juried Lexington Open Studios, Arlington Open Studios, and Art in the Park at DeCordova Museum, Lincoln MA.

  • Received award, Best in Show” for Photography, ArtsaroundBoston, 1995.

  • Won competition from Lexington Council for the Arts for permanent installation of  “Lexington: A Sense of Place” in Lexington Town Office Building, 1987

Other Education:

  • 1974-1977 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

  • Received Master of Regional Planning (M.R.P.) degree, focus on environmental planning.