DBIA - Lee Dunkel

Volusia Suites, 1992
Silver prints
 

Lee Dunkel
Daytona Beach, Fla.
Click on the images for larger view.

Lee Dunkel is a nationally known black-and-white landscape photographer . Lauded by critics for its uncompromising consistency and startling beauty, her photography references nature through a shimmering black-and-white palette. She characteristically explores a geographical location over a long period of time, often years, allowing her to capture subtle changes in the landscape.

Dunkel began her photographic education at Daytona Beach Community College (now Daytona State College). She took workshops under well-known photographers John Sexton and George Tice to learn the fine art of printmaking using the classic gelatin silver printing process. She has never changed her commitment to the labor-intensive method of processing film in the darkroom, even in the wake of digital photography. Dunkel uses Ansel Adams' zone system when she is photographing, but once inside the darkroom, absolutes are of less concern to her, and she allows herself to experiment.

She has been honored with solo exhibitions of her work since the late 1980s and has received several grants, including two Florida Individual Fellowship grants. Her work can be found in corporate and private collections. 

”I am attracted to black-and-white photography because of the abstract quality it lends to the image, making it something more than documentation... I took photographs, not with exact replication in mind, but rather 'seeing' through the lens what the images might look like once I could manipulate the prints in the darkroom. Each image is made using the whole negative, but the tonal quality is composed with a combination of photography, film development, and darkroom techniques."
– Lee Dunkel