From Current Presidents to Contemporary Presence

There’s not much photographer David Charlowe hasn’t shot in his lengthy career

After years of photographing everyone who’s anyone, from Muhammad Ali to the Clintons, David Charlowe takes on new challenges to move his artwork from traditional photography to unconventional, abstract images of natural surroundings.

Living in Columbus, Charlowe has been an artist and photographer for over 30 years. He has worked with many celebrities and politicians, as well as major corporations, associations, nonprofit and government agencies.

“I always had an interest in art, starting from when I was a kid,” Charlowe says. “My dad painted, and he used to make me watch Learn to Draw with Jon Gnagy, so I would always draw on Saturdays.”

A New York native, Charlowe studied art at the University of Buffalo. Though he majored in art, after working as a photographer in college, he was hooked.

His work shifted toward the professional field when he opened photography studios in two renowned hotels in Miami Beach, Fla. – Fontainebleau and Eden Roc – which gave him the chance to photograph a whole slew of famous people. He had the chance to work with celebrities such as Muhammad Ali and Ann-Margret, as well as sports teams such as the Miami Dolphins.

He moved to Ohio in the mid-1980s and opened a photography business, Picture America, in Columbus. Here, Charlowe found the same niche in working with famous people, this time snapping pictures of prominent politicians such as John Glenn, Newt Gingrich, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

If there was an event that warranted high administration to be present, “it was a pretty good bet that we were there to photograph the VIPs,” Charlowe says. “I wasn’t a famous photographer, but I photographed a lot of famous people.”

Later in the 1980s, Charlowe was the first to put a studio in the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and as he photographed zoo patrons, his business started the trend of keeping a photograph souvenir to remember the experience. The popular, customary souvenir keychains with photos that many people associate with zoo-going exist because of his work, he says.

Charlowe even branched out into painting in the 1990s, but his main focus remains his photography. His recent works capture natural surroundings in an unconventional way, using his experienced, sharp eye for composition and color to achieve a simplified yet sophisticated style.

“I photograph real subjects, but I don’t try to document a time and place from a conventional standpoint,” he says. “I try to do a close-up view, and they take on a look of their own, as opposed to what the actual subject may have been.”

His close-up, stand-alone shots of water, open spaces and even walls evoke an uninhibited, untamed emotion. His finished work is large-scale, with some as much as 8 feet long, so they have a palpable, staggering presence when viewed in person.

“Most of my photographs read more like an abstract painting than a documentation style of photograph,” Charlowe says. “Since I’ve already done conventional photography, in my artwork now, I try to make them look more abstract.”

He was the first photographer to have his work featured at Art Access Gallery in Bexley – the result, he says, of his piece, a series of horses, reading more like a painting than a photograph.

His inspiration can be drawn from his walks along the beaches of South Florida, where the tide had revealed distressed and eroded seawalls, which contrasted with the fabulous, manicured mansions on the beach. His recent series, Exposed, was born from these walks.

“It would look like a third world country where the beach is eroded, even in wealthy areas,” says Charlowe. “The seawall was exposed, and there were washed-away stairs and deck areas. And there was this exposed, rotted wall space. But there was a certain beauty in the rusted-out colors.”

Each image in Exposed reveals a moment in history, a journey through time. The colors – pinks, terracottas, bright yellows – and the scars and markings in the walls are decades old, exposing a complex history of construction and destruction.

Charlowe was also recently half of a two-man show at Marcia Evans Gallery in the Short North.

Also, in a recent juried show in Palm Beach, he was one of 18 to be selected for the Palm Beach County Arts Council for Art in Public Places. The piece, a water scene, is on display at the Palm Beach International Airport.

Charlowe is a past board member of ROY G BIV Gallery, a nonprofit gallery for emerging artists. His work can be seen by appointment at his private home in Columbus when he is not at his studio in Florida.

Corinne Murphy is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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