Blue Water Pictures
Dennis Anderson Photography
bluewaterpictures.com
This year the removal of four big dams on the Klamath River opened the way for the migration of salmon to their ancestral spawning grounds in the upper Klamath, the Williamson, and the Sprague Rivers. Salmon not seen for a hundred years. Traveling over three hundred miles from the Pacific ocean they were now free to push themselves up the creeks and tributaries to spawn. I got an underwater camera and filmed some of this. Then we made a movie about the parallels between a photographer at the end of his life cycle and the salmon who spawn, then die and return their bodies to nourish the forests and streams. Their offspring hatch and begin their own journey to sea to live and grow, eventually returning to start the cycle all over again.
The pics of the creek underwater certainly look to me like they were taken on one of Neptunes Moons.
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The Freelancer, Artists, Outlaws, and the Search for Freedom is a collection of stories and photographs I found on the road less traveled. Here are the adventures of my life's work in photography, as recorded when the shutter was pressed.Photography has always been my way of searching for freedom and truth. With the cameras eye I’ve looked through history, across cultures, and out to the edges of society. I’ve explored the worlds of tribal art and woven carpets; outlaw bikers and rock-and-roll legends; photographed beautiful restaurants and traveled internationally for the hospitality industry; I’ve survived taking photos underwater from the Cayman Islands to the San Francisco Bay; hung out with risk takers, iconoclasts, artists, and radicals; and from my earliest black and white work under my teacher, the legendary Imogene Cunningham to my most recent fine art work on migrating salmon I’m still seeking freedom and truth.Life is full of hidden mysteries. In a photograph, connections are made between objects and people that reveal more than at first meets the eye.
Praise for Anderson’s book Hidden Treasures of San Francisco Bay:"As a native San Franciscan I have enjoyed the San Francisco Bay all my life. Yet Dennis Anderson's striking photography reveals a world I have seen only in glimpses — the Bay at night, underwater, and from above… This is a truly remarkable work.” Senator Diane Feinstein
Dennis Anderson is an internationally known photographer whose work is represented in the permanent collections of both the MoMA and SFMOMA. Major shows of his work have hung at the California Academy of Science and the San Francisco Airport Museum. He was named one of the 10 Great Hospitality Photographers by Hospitality Design Magazine in 2005. He has been featured on the popular television program Bay Area Backroads, KRON TV Channel 4.A native of New Jersey, Anderson received his B.A. from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and he then studied under Imogene Cunningham at the San Francisco Art Institute. Anderson has traveled professionally throughout Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, shooting for both commercial and environmental clients.His writing and photos have appeared in numerous magazines and publications, including Oceans, Art and Antiques, Islands, Wooden Boat, Tribal Art, Maritime Life and Traditions, Hospitality Design, Camera, Photo District News, Popular Photography, Modern Photography, Rolling Stone, and Architectural Digest. He has presented a series of lighting and photography seminars around the country as a member of the Distinguished Speakers Series of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).Anderson now lives in the high desert town of Klamath Falls, Oregon, where his most recent project has been shooting underwater video of migrating salmon. The removal of four huge dams on the Klamath River now allows the salmon to make the 300 mile journey from the river's mouth on California's Pacific coast to their home in the Upper Klamath River watershed, something not seen for 100 years.