America the Beautiful: Photographs by Clyde Butcher

Wilderness, to me, is a spiritual necessity. When my son was killed by a drunken driver, it was to the wilderness that I fled in hopes of regaining my serenity and equilibrium. The mysterious spiritual experience of being close to nature helped restore my soul. It was during that time I discovered the intimate beauty of the environment. My experience reinforced my sense of dedication to use my art form, photography, to show people that there is a unity between all undisturbed natural places, whether a peak of a renowned mountain range or a stream-bed in an urban watershed. My hope is to educate… to let people know our land is a special place, and to inspire others to work together to save nature’s places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations.

– Clyde Butcher

Clyde Butcher is an acclaimed photographer who has made it his mission to photograph and document wild and natural places across America for the last 50 years. He grew up in California and later relocated to Florida, finding peace and his life’s mission within the Everglades. His photographs reveal wild and natural places where few humans have ventured, with images capturing remarkable solitude and wonder.

His oversized dramatic images are a valued artistic expression of what we have and what we might lose if we do not protect our environment. Butcher is an ambassador to the arts and the environment, a diplomat of the remaining wild places and an emissary to the hearts and minds of Americans to protect our country’s natural places.

This exhibition is sponsored by the Hayner Foundation.

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