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Kevin Syms Utilizes New Technology to Create New Expressions
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Thursday, March 8, 2018
 

BY KAREN BOSSICK

Kevin Syms has had to constantly reinvent himself over more than 40 years as a photographer.

With each technological advance, he’s gotten more and more creative, turning iconic Sun Valley images into magical expressions.

Syms is showing some of his new work, ranging from aspen flocked with snow to a Lake Creek trail, at Kneeland Gallery this month. He will be on hand to talk about his work during the March Gallery Walk from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 9, at the gallery, 271 First Ave. N., in Ketchum.

Some of his photographs in the show evoke thoughts of Old World Sun Valley with sepia tones illuminating images like a horse-drawn sleigh making its way along a snow-covered Trail Creek trail.

Other large mural works are a departure from his standard landscapes.

One of the Sun Valley Opera House on varnished crystalline canvas features photo manipulation through various software programs to create a swirly painterly look to the snow-covered trees.

Others are on resin coated metallic prints on panels—something Syms just started experimenting with in the past few months.

The metal paper, which boasts a layer of metal inside, offers a sharp, crisp look. One of Syms’ photographs of lupine juxtaposed against a backdrop of snow-capped purple mountains illuminated by an orange sky looks almost three-dimensional, as if the viewer could walk right into the picture.

Cloth canvases, by contrast, produce softer images.

“Part of the art is knowing what image is going to look best on what mcanvas,” said Syms, a resident of the Wood River Valley for more than 50 years.

Though the techniques are fairly new, some of the photographs have been years in the making.

Take the shot of a horse pulling a sleigh down a snow-covered trail beneath Trail Creek Cabin and a nearly full moon.

Syms spent 10 years scoping out the perfect spot from which to shoot and waiting for a nearly full moon to line up with a sleigh leaving the cabin.

“My family always took the sleigh ride at Christmas—it’s just a magical part of living in Sun Valley. So I put a lot of work into finding a good location and time,” he said.

Syms captured a photograph of Sun Valley’s Christmas Eve torchlight parade and fireworks that he’d always dreamed of only after years of climbing up a nearby mountain with his dog and his Hasselblad camera.

“Either there wasn’t enough snow and the sagebrush was peeking through, or it was cloudy,” he said.

Other photographs in the exhibition were unplanned.

Syms was driving south of Ketchum when he noticed a cowboy working with horses in the pasture across from the Reinheimer Barn. Fortunately, he had his Hasselblad with him and so he hurried to set it up, hoping the cowboys would lead the horses along the path he imagined in his mind. He got off three pictures, one of which is part of the Kneeland Gallery exhibition.

“It’s not a landscape but it is a lifestyle piece,” he said. “What I like is the motion in the picture—the horses’ manes flying.”

Syms found his love for photography in high school, dodging and burning images of the Wood River Valley in a darkroom he built in the basement of his family’s home. Howard Huff, a master photographer at Boise State University, encouraged him to pursue a career in photography, and Syms’ portfolio earned him early acceptance into Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Upon graduation in 1979, he returned to Sun Valley to produce stock ski images.

He earned his bread and butter over the years shooting hotels. It’s a venture that started with shooting photographs of the Sun Valley Lodge and led to work with such clients as Nobel House, Four Seasons, Hilton and Fairmont hotels, as well as some Nevada casinos.

“I’ve even photographed islands in the Bahamas for private clients,” said Syms, who has also done work for Rocky Mountain Hardware, Scott USA and Smith Optics.

Film was all there was when Syms started. He shot Polaroid using a Polaroid back on his camera until he had the lighting like he wanted it. Then he switched to film.

“Now, with digital, you can look at your shot right away,” he said.

Since there was no autofocus, he had to turn the focus manually as a skier was skiing toward him.

Today he works in an expansive multi-room studio in Ketchum’s light industrial district.

He accentuates the trees in his photos and applies color using a pen, or what he calls a “digital paintbrush,” on tablet.

He covers metallic with resin, using a torch to get the bubbles out.

“It’s fun because it’s so different from when I do commercial photography,” he said. “Then, I have to keep five or six people busy—I have to listen to the model and the advertising guy while I adjust the lights… It’s so intense. This is calming, relaxing—me by myself.”

Syms says he’s scaling back his commercial work to spend more time on his fine art photography—because he can.

“The commercial work paid for my daughter’s college tuition. Now she’s out of school and working,” he said of daughter Kelsey, who is working with the Washington, D.C.-based McCain Institute to stop human trafficking after graduating with a political science degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“And stock photography is not what it used to be. Now that anyone can take a picture it’s lost its value,” he said. “So now I do what I want to do. I do what pleases me.”

Kneeland Gallery doesn’t typically show photographs, but Owner Diane Kneeland made an exception as she saw how Syms’ work was crossing into the realm of fine art.

“I like these, and our clients really like them, too,” said Gallery Director Carey Molter.

Syms said it’s exciting for him to use ever evolving technology to give creative expression to his photographs.

“And it’s nice to have a place like Kneeland where people can see what I’m working on, as well.”

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