Drawing inspiration from the natural world
Story Kayli Corbin Photos Kimberlee Miller
Our ability to capture a moment, a memory, or an experience can fundamentally enrich us as humans. Creating a tangible keepsake to correlate with our abstract emotion adds an unexplainable dynamic to our human experience. It allows us to cherish our adventures, remember our loved ones, and most importantly elicit and share perspective.
Rob Hart is a Boise local using photography to do just that. He studied photography formally at BSU for four years. He began with black and white primarily and later developed his style to include color. He was influenced by some of America’s greatest photographers like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Alfred Stieglitz. He was hesitant to transition to digital photography and enjoyed that his manual cameras would work without a battery, in sub-freezing conditions, and were built like tanks. This fit well with his active lifestyle spent rock climbing and exploring the wonders of nature.
Much like Adams, Hart draws inspiration from our natural world. He explains what it means to him to capture the beauty around us, “I guess I like to share these beautiful places, and times, with others. I am very fortunate to have been to all (the places photography has taken me) – many of which are not the same now; changed forever. Photography also means travel, meeting new people and cultures, being exposed to so much goodness in the world – something quite lacking in the news these days. I hope some of my images might spark a desire to join a conservation group, to become a supporter of the Sea Shepherds, or the Natur
e Conservancy, or the Wilderness Society. We are the only ones who can save the beauty of this planet.”
You can see this passion for the environment in Hart’s work. He enjoys portrait work but focuses his attention on landscapes. The stillness of a landscape caters to his desire for the perfect shot. Working for an image adds more of that previously mentioned ‘intangible’ aspect to it. It makes a story. The story of waking up before dawn, having coffee, and then spending time and effort to capture a beautiful moment in time that will not exist again. Hart works, quite simply, to capture what he sees. He pays attention to each detail from capturing, printing, mounting, and framing.
When it comes to framing, Hart goes to Meg Glasgow of Finer Frames. “I’m actually not much of a framer, so that’s why I have Meg. She knows everything about that; so that’s one less thing for me to worry about.” Glasgow and Hart’s talent combined create some truly beautiful pieces that remind us all to be a bit more present and to appreciate the beauty that mother nature provides us. Photography has taken Rob and his wife Jill all over the world and allowed him to capture breathtaking images to share.
Head over to https://www.hartimages.com/ to learn more about Rob Hart and experience first hand the beauty he captures. And check out Meg’s framework at www.finerframes.com.
