About
About Chris Baumgardt
Chris Baumgardt is a photographer based in Eugene, Oregon.
I came to photography watching my father — landscape and astronomy, mostly, lots of hikes that turned into endurance tests and nights spent laying in a sleeping bag without a tent staring at the stars. That was my education. No formal instruction, no single moment where a camera was handed over. Just years of watching someone perform the craft with deliberateness and skill and carrying the tripod or long telephoto lens all over the western states.
When I started shooting myself, I started on film. The discipline of 36 frames, no instant review, and no way to fix what you got wrong stayed with me. You think about what you're actually looking at before you press the shutter. You plan ahead so you have the right film stock handy and loaded.
I still shoot film a fair amount, but these days I primarily shoot digital, and I'd be dishonest if I said I didn't appreciate the freedom it gives — the ability to experiment in conditions that would have cost a fortune on a roll of Kodak, to adapt immediately when the light changes, to not be locked into whatever emulsion happens to be loaded. Amazing sensors that mean I can leave the tripod behind. But the discipline that film built is still there in how I approach every frame, regardless of what I'm shooting on. I never look at the burst rate on a camera spec sheet because I am never going to use it.
The work primarily covers landscape and travel. Empty roads. Open sky. The quiet that settles over a place when the crowds have gone. I'm drawn to what gets left behind: the ruins of old structures reclaimed slowly by the landscape around them, the places where human ambition ran out and nature moved back in.
At famous locations, I tend to look past the obvious frame. What interests me is the detail, the angle, the part of the place most visitors don't stop for. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is an amazing structure, but I am drawn to the textures and colors of the marble and stone of the tower.
The wide documentary shot tells you a place exists. The detail tells you what it's actually like to be there.
But, I don't limit myself to the objective shot and the clear subject. The abstract has caught my attention a lot these days. Textures, impenetrable shadows, partially obscured objects force the viewer to really look at the image and create the story only they see. I find that very interesting.
I'm based in Eugene, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest is home ground, but the work takes me further — European cities, high desert, coastline, the wide open spaces in between. The common thread isn't geography. It's the search for a new experience and finding the quiet moments in a world that seems committed to neither.
Thank you for stopping by and your interest in my work.
Prints are available through the shop. Licensing and collaboration inquiries are welcome — you can reach me through the Licensing & Collaboration page.