Marcus Doyle returns to APU to showcase unique art style
Vibrantly colored landscape photographs line the white walls of APU’s Duke Art Gallery. Their compositions illustrate a combination of mostly nature and certain man-made elements. This is an art style that world-renowned photographer Marcus Doyle has worked to perfect over the course of his career.
Friday marked the opening of Doyle’s “Wanderlust” exhibit, which will be on display in the Duke Art Gallery until March 1. Doyle, who was a professor at APU in the past, is now a full-time photographer who travels around the world to capture unique phenomena such as billboards in the middle of a desert.
A photograph on display in the “Wanderlust” exhibit, showing how nature comes together with man-made elements in Doyle’s work. Photo by Brenda Covarrubias.
Doyle began his career photographing in black-and-white, but while working in the Gulf of England, he discovered something that changed his work forever: a color he coined “Doyle Blue.” Doyle said that the color only occurs once a day.
“[At] a time of day before twilight, after sunset where there’s this blue color in the sky. It happens all over the world, but it only lasts four or five minutes,” Doyle said.
Location is important to Doyle, as he chooses to photograph landscapes across the globe.
“I see a lot of these pictures as evidence … you’re out in an environment trying to bring something back from that environment … You know that saying, ‘It’s not the destination, it’s the journey,’” Doyle shrugged. “This is very much the journey.”
Although Doyle’s photographs are admired for how they are captured, many people are more interested in how these photographs — and their colors — are made.
Doyle practices the technique of taking only one photograph of whatever image he is trying to capture and never takes a photograph of the same place twice — a technique many photographers advise against as it decreases their chances of capturing a good image. Without several photographs to choose from, Doyle has to make sure that he gets the perfect shot every time, which he admitted is difficult.
He often waits several hours for the sun to set an exact way before taking a photo.
“You’ve got to be patient,” Doyle said during his art gallery walk. “If you wait too long, you can miss it.”
Doyle refrains from using digital cameras, as he prefers the traditional technique of hand printing each of his gallery photos in a dark room, which in turn increases the value of the photograph itself. Although the colors Doyle uses are striking and at times appear unnatural, he does not edit any of his photographs aside from balancing the color when needed to make them appear as they did in person.
Julia Heines, an administrative assistant at APU’s Department of Art, was in awe of Doyle’s work and technique of production.
“The fact that he printed them by hand is really amazing,” Heines said.
Several people had questions about his work at the art gallery opening. Many art students asked why he photographed nature alongside man-made elements, while others were more concerned with how he got the colors that are shown in each picture.
People observing Doyle’s work on the first day of the exhibit’s opening. Photo by Brenda Covarrubias.
“I wanted to take pictures that asked a question,” Doyle explained. “There doesn’t always have to be an answer, but so long as you ask a question, it’s done good.”
Steve Childs, director of exhibitions in APU’s Department of Art, said he hopes visitors will come to experience the beauty and quietness in the Duke Art Gallery for themselves.