The Photography of Landscape Architect A. E. Bye
10 September through 13 October 2007
From the very start of my landscape architectural career I always thought that I should do my own photography of my work. I had a Leica, a Hasselblad, and a Linhof, and with these cameras I could convey what I believed was my philosophical and emotional message.
—A. E. Bye
It has often been the story of my work that one never knows I’ve done anything.
—A. E. Bye, 1981
Arthur Edwin Bye (1919–2001) is considered by many to have been the most significant and influential landscape architect in the United States during the late 20th century. Largely unknown to even his most ardent admirers are his visually stunning photographs of his finished projects and his straightforward images of the natural world, numbering well over 40,000 at his death in 2001.
Born in Arnhem, Holland, on August 25, 1919, Bye spent his childhood years in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The area is still known for its bucolic natural beauty and is critical to understanding Bye’s affection and respect for the natural landscape as shown through his vast photographic accomplishment.
The photographs display no artifice. Bye directly and humbly observes and then records his observations, using for more than forty years a 35mm Leica and then adding a medium-format Hasselblad and a larger Linhof. A self-taught maker of images, Bye never studied nor was influenced by the work of landscape photographers.
Bye’s photographs are pictures of humility. The “genius of the place”— careful observations of the “other”—takes center stage, not the genius of the maker. A humble man, Bye was never particularly interested in talking about his work or in providing easy answers to complicated meanings. The images seemed to serve as useful mnemonic tools to remember things he had witnessed: color, movement, line, form, texture, and density. The images transcend style, and like his landscape design projects they employ nature, not man, as his primary inspiration. Though never about him, they represent an autobiographical tale of epic proportions still largely unknown to the art world. Taken as adjunct visual tools of his working habits, the photographs illuminate his creative process, allowing the viewer to “see” what Bye saw and perhaps better understand the roots of his abstraction and his deep affection for the natural landscape that formed the basis of his art.
All works are loaned courtesy of the Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University. Professor Eliza Pennypacker, Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, provided much-appreciated assistance in organizing the show.
The Pollock Gallery, Southern Methodist University, is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11 AM to 5 PM and Saturday from 1 to 5 PM.
Closed Wednesday except by appointment. For more information please call 214-768-4439 or e-mail pvankeur@smu.edu.
