DAVID SCHERRER: MOROCCO 2019

January 12 – April 7, 2023

ARTIST STATEMENT

I began making photographs at age nine, while living in S.E. Asia.  Much of my childhood was spent overseas.  Given an abundance of freedom, I wandered through intriguing environments that excited my senses and delighted my eyes.  The photographs I take today have their roots in those early experiences.  When I am working with the camera, I am hunting for visual elements that, combined with my emotional responses, come together in the viewfinder to create compositions.  

My primary concern is to make lyrical photographic images.  I choose objects primarily that cause an emotional reaction when seeing them for the first time through the camera. Secondly the images must have a strong abstract and compositional potential (or I position them in the viewfinder in such a way that they become abstractions), but they retain their “recognizability”.  Focusing the camera on both man-made and natural forms, integrating compositional balance and a sense of light, I often evoke dreamlike visual memories.  Gathering all this together in the neat package of a photograph, I produce a personal visual poem.  I wish to evoke that emotional reaction and a sense of discovery in the viewer that goes beyond the mere formal elements of composition.  Additionally, these prints integrate the unique qualities of the photographic medium, such as edge definition, tone, color, motion/time recording, and optical perspective.

Many decades have passed since I first held a camera with purpose.  As a working artist, I pursue my career on two levels: one dealing with assignments from without, and another dealing with assignments from within.  This work represents assignments I gave myself while traveling in Morocco in 2019.

Thank you to our generous sponsor:

Visit the Exhibit in person. Admission is free, every day.

David Scherrer: Morocco 2019

Asfalou 1

Asfalou 1
Photograph
23” x 25”

$450

Asfalou 2

Asfalou 2
Photograph
25″ x 23″

SOLD

Chefchaouen 1

Chefchaouen 1
Photograph
23” x 25”

$450

Chefchaoiuen 2

Chefchaouen 2
Photograph
25″ x 23″

SOLD

Chefchaouen 3

Chefchaouen 3
Photograph
23” x 25”

$450

Chefchaouen 4

Chefchaouen 4
Photograph
25″ x 23″

$450

Essaouira 1

Essaouira 1
Photograph
23” x 25”

$450

Essaouira 2

Essaouira 2
Photograph
25″ x 23″

$450

Essaouira 3

Essaouira 3
Photograph
23” x 25”

$450

Fez 1

Fez 1
Photograph
25″ x 23″

SOLD

Fez 2

Fez 2
Photograph
25″ x 23″

$450

Meknes 1

Meknes 1
Photograph
25″ x 23″

$450

Meknes 2

Meknes 2
Photograph
23” x 25”

$450

Meknes 3

Meknes 3
Photograph
25″ x 23″

$450

Meknes 4

Meknes 4
Photograph
23” x 25”

SOLD

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born overseas to a military family in 1951, David Scherrer began producing photographs under a house on stilts in Cambodia when he was 9.  David had his first exhibition, of Turkish streets scenes, while a high school student in Ankara.  He went on to study photography at W.W.U. in Bellingham WA., taught by Robert Embrey, and traveled throughout the West in the late 70’s, attending classes and workshops in Carmel and Yosemite taught by Ansel Adams, Arnold Newman, and Bret Weston.  In 1978 David studied film and photography under Hal Haberstat as a graduate student at the University of Oregon in Eugene.  He then moved to Seattle, and in the early 80’s he was a founding member of “Lightworks,” an organization of photo artists established to hold exhibitions in non-traditional locations. 

David has created works in various mediums, including B/W, Cibachrome, dye transfer, and digital inkjet. He has taught photography classes for W.W.U., Whatcom Community College, North Cascades Institute, National Wildlife Federation, and Allied Arts. In 2007 David was awarded a Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship, serving a photography residency in County Mayo, Ireland.  His work has been exhibited at the Whatcom Museum, the Museum of NW Art, Amadeus Project, the City of Kent Gallery.  He and his painter son, Peter Scherrer, will be having a father-son exhibition at Bellingham’s Geheim Gallery in May 2021. 

David Scherrer lives and works in Bellingham WA.