Fire and Ice: CEPA exhibit showcases UB photographer’s snowflake art

Alongside a snowblower in Douglas Levere’s garage sit objects also connected with wintertime, but with a far different purpose than removing piles of snow. Instead, Levere’s camera equipment, not far from his Ariens ST624E blower, yields images of ice crystals in all their intricate beauty before they vanish forever.

Levere, digital image specialist in University Communications, has been photographing snowflakes in his garage for the past two years, bringing their varied and intricate patterns to the attention of an increasingly wider public. His current exhibit, “Fire and Ice,” on view through Jan. 2 at the CEPA Gallery, is an imaginative collaboration with Alan Friedman, UB graduate and noted astrophotographer whose solar images have been featured on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day and exhibited around the country.

Having photographed Friedman and knowing his work, Levere became intrigued with the notion of mounting a joint show, juxtaposing his snowflake photos with Friedman’s dazzling telescopic portraits of the sun’s surface. “It seemed so much more interesting to make [the images] into a collaboration,” Levere says. “The work would go so much further to be able to think about these two objects, sun and snowflake, which have such different contrasts and yet complement each other.”

The juxtaposition is even more startling when one realizes that “Friedman’s suns become almost cellular and Levere’s snowflakes inherit the stature of skyscrapers,” in the words of CEPA Artistic Director David Mitchell. Levere points to Friedman’s analysis of the strangely congruent areas of sun and snowflake, as seen through the respective lens of each photographer. “Alan likes to say that if you look at the sun and you put your finger up, it’s about the size of your pinky nail. And the biggest snowflake you might photograph is probably the size of your pinky nail. So this is where you understand that the magnification is actually quite similar.”

Levere says snowflakes have become his “passion” — he’s fascinated by the minute window of time available to photograph their all-too-ephemeral existence. “Their delicacy, strength and elegance have kept me standing in the cold on endless black nights,” he writes in his artist’s statement. In technical terms, Levere uses a Cannon Digital SLR, 5x microscope lens and an adapted microscope base to painstakingly render each image. “A flash usually illuminates the snowflake from below and most images require 10 to 50 exposures focused at slightly different depths. Then in Photoshop, these layers are brought together, finding the sharpest parts of each, for the final resulting image.” He has a large, 44-inch printer in his commercial studio to output the images. The large prints on display make the snowflakes even more wondrous to behold.

Levere became enamored with snow crystals about eight years ago after seeing the snowflake images of physicist Kenneth Libbrecht and ordering prints for his then-infant son’s room. He was also familiar with the work of Wilson Bentley (1865-1931), whose snow crystal collection is housed at the Buffalo Museum of Science. He began to experiment with snowflake photography; the arduous process gradually became the big project he’d been seeking, one compatible with his full-time job, an outside business selling fine art prints and his family life. “It seemed to fit into the limitations that I had,” he says. “Nobody could stop me from going in the garage at 10 o’clock or midnight on a cold night and standing there for two hours taking pictures of snowflakes.”

For Levere, the snowflake is an ideal successor to his previous large-scale venture: re-photographing the New York City scenes captured decades earlier by Berenice Abbott (1898-1991). In fact, he used Abbott’s own 8x10 Century Universal camera to parallel as much as possible the exact circumstances of her work, including the time of day and shooting positions. This ambitious project led to his 2004 book “New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott’s New York” (Princeton Architectural Press). Indeed, Levere and Friedman are planning a book about their fire-and-ice collaboration. A future exhibition in Ellicottville for Levere and a collaborative show with Friedman at Santa Fe’s Photo-Eye Gallery are also in the offing.

All these plans are exciting to Levere, of course, but what he most appreciates is the simple act of beholding. “Just looking at them — not even taking pictures — is amazing. You can’t believe this is a natural occurrence.”

Snowfall is so far elusive, but Levere eagerly awaits the arrival of this season’s crystals to photograph in that cold garage, with plans for new techniques and forms of experimentation to capture winter’s infinite wonder.

Enjoy these selections from Douglas Levere's collection of snowflake photos. More photos may be viewed on Levere's website.