2008 Poster Artist
Poster
Artist - Lawrence W. Oliverson
An environmental engineer by training, Sullivan-based Larry Oliverson has
been a full-time fine art photographer since 1979. His photo, “1,000
Cranes,” featured on this year’s Lakefront Festival of Arts poster, utilizes
paper origami cranes he found in a wicker basket near his darkroom. “I
literally walked by them many times and was always fascinated by their
colors and shape,” he says. The cranes were folded from magazine materials.
“For thousands of years in the Japanese culture, cranes have been an
important symbol of honor, loyalty, good fortune and longevity,” he says.
“It’s believed that if a person folds 1,000 cranes, they’re granted a wish.”
More recently, they’ve become an international symbol of peace. Oliverson
jokes that he is rapidly becoming a dinosaur because he only shoots film and
doesn’t use any computer or digital manipulation. For better clarity and
printing capabilities, he primarily uses a large format camera to expose 4-
by 5-inch color negatives. “I’ve worked with film for a long time and am
very satisfied with the results,” he says. “Although I find digital
photography fascinating, I still prefer the use of film and traditional
darkroom techniques to print my own work.” He particularly likes the sense
of reality that film lends to his work. “What the viewer sees actually
exists somewhere. It’s a slice of the real world seen in a different light,”
he notes. “I tend to isolate small sections of a larger scene. The resulting
images often transcend the physical characteristics of the subject matter
and become surreal or abstract.”
– Scott R. Weinberger
