A New North Dakota

Chuck Kimmerle sees the golden prairie in black and white. Through the lens of his camera, North Dakota’s hidden treasures are rendered shockingly clear and breathtakingly beautiful. Kimmerle’s aim, however, is not to present “the pretty” but to share the quirks that inhabit our landscape.

His large collection of photographs hang on display at the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, inspiring travelers and natives alike to take another look at our familiar surroundings.

Kimmerle answered the Grand Forks’ Herald’s call for a photographer before the flood of 1997, leaving the twin cities for the North Dakota town. His arrival coincided with the paper’s national recognition and an overwhelming amount of material to photograph as the city battled flood and fire. Kimmerle was then hired by the University of North Dakota, for which he continues to shoot for the college’s magazines, promotional pieces and major events.

Like many artists, Kimmerle accepts the necessity of a day job. “A day job is a day job; it’s a thing you have to do.” But that doesn’t stop him from producing his own work. In fact, he admits that if he didn’t have a day job, he might one day get bored driving around North Dakota, looking for his next shot.

For years he had been working with large format cameras, even going so far as transforming his basement into a darkroom, but then he realized “something didn’t feel right.” He began to play with digital cameras and quickly found it to be his preferred medium. His darkroom was soon replaced with a computer and hard drives; his subject took slightly longer to discover.

For eight years Kimmerle drove around the rural Grand Forks area, taking in the landscape. It wasn’t until four years ago that the scenery caught his photographer’s eye and held it. When asked why it took him so long, Kimmerle admitted, “It’s easy to get lost in the vastness that is the prairie.”

He had to look for “the little quirks and hiccups” instead.

Armed with his digital camera, Kimmerle now drives the back roads of Grand Forks and Walsh counties, covering the area “pretty darn good.” He laughs about the fact that sometimes he gets excited that he has found a new spot only to realize he’s been there before. Despite this, and the fact that 90 percent of the time he has no idea where he’s going, Kimmerle acknowledges his inner need to get in the car every chance he gets.

He stresses that his black and white work is all done on personal time: “It’s all weekends and nights. I’m not receiving any grants or payment for these pieces; I do this for myself.”

Kimmerle’s view of North Dakota does not lend to traditional landscape. As he put it at the opening reception of his show, “Like Wayne Gudmundson’s work, it’s not just nature, all pretty clouds and hills. I see it more as the interplay between the agricultural community and mother nature. Some people think landscape photography is simply a matter of finding something to shoot, but to me, it’s a matter of deciphering what I see.”

Kimmerle’s digital photographs display the landscape in a sharpness that mimics the land. “My pieces don’t apologize for what they show, just like North Dakota doesn’t apologize for how it looks. It’s part of its nature and history. The land is very much like the people who live on it: honest.”

The Unapologetic Landscape is on display at the North Dakota Museum of Art from June 30 to August 30. An extremely well-attended reception on June 30 kicked off the show in style with a small string band and a few brief words from the artist. Kimmerle’s show runs in conjunction with a sculptural exhibit by Zoran Mojsilov, whose work in natural stone and steel plays well with the black and white photographs on the second floor.

The North Dakota Museum of Art is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The gallery is located on the University of North Dakota campus at 261 Centennial Dr., Stop 7305. For directions and questions, please call (701) 777-4195 or visit their website at http://www.ndmoa.com.