Local fine art photographer Raymond Bleesz, the co-founder of the Vail Valley Art Guild Photographers Group, has had three images accepted into the 56th Annual Eye of the Camera exhibition at the Littleton Museum of Art in Denver.

The museum hosts juried art and photography exhibits that highlight Colorado artists in their Fine Arts Gallery throughout the year. This years Eye of the Camera exhibit accepted 41 works from 32 artists, all centered around the theme Safe to Wonder, and will be open to the public from Jan. 21 through March 12 of this year.

Some feel wonder wanes with age and is unattainable as we become information-retaining adults, the exhibition description reads. But if we are given the space to wonder, does this change? And what does that encompass, space to wonder? Is it a literal or a physical space, a mental space? Is it permission to admit ignorance and awe? Does it have a sense of urgency or is it irrespective of time and physical location? This years 41-piece exhibition brings us Space to Wonder.

One of Bleesz accepted images is titled Books at Rest. The black-and-white photo depicts books stacked high in the cafeteria window at Battle Mountain High School.

Books have always created wonderment, have opened our minds for further education, for enlightenment, Bleesz said. We can become lost in reading and enjoy the printed word, a mental space. Hence, each book creates a space to wonder.

The second, titled Spirit and Faces, shows faces painted onto wood in the outskirts of Flagstaff, Arizona.

The markings make one wonder, why out here in the open space? Bleesz said. Who did this, why were these markings done, why do they create wonderment?

The final image that will be featured in the exhibit is titled Road Passage Blocked to Yonder, taken in Blanding, Utah.

The signage is most interesting as well as unusual, an art statement to halt further progress, Bleesz said. It creates a sense of space beyond which is not obtainable to all but only for those who can open the gate.

Bleesz has been accepted into the Eye of the Camera exhibit before, but this is the first time that all of his submitted photos were accepted.

I have submitted to the Littleton Eye of the Camera juried shows over the years, as this show is a major exhibit for Colorado Photographers, and on occasions in the past, I have had acceptance for a singular image and rejection as well, but having three is most satisfying, Bleesz said.

All of the images on display at the exhibition are also on sale, with 25% commission going towards the Littleton Museum of Art. For more information about the exhibit, visit littletongov.org.

Read more here:
Local photographer has three works accepted into annual Denver exhibition - Vail Daily