Hallmark Symposium: Bryon Darby

Hallmark Symposium: Bryon Darby- Photo Media

My Review

Walking in the room Bryon Darby looked like any young adult. Potentially married, done with school and ready to make his mark on the design world. Who knew that he had already accomplished so much… we were about to find out.

            Bryon was primarily a photographer. His other specialites included work in the graphic design field and had worked with website design as well. He was very personable as he spoke to the crowd; just like he was talking to us each individually.

            As Bryon first started out we got a glimpse of some of his photographs that he sent in to apply for graduate school. They mainly consisted of black and white photos of nature. It was just different aspects of being outside. The thing that struck me as very pure was the pictures of the sky and of water. The water was almost pitch black in the photos he took, and the sky was a light soft contrast. They were breath taking from this perspective. He had managed to capture a very normal scene and make it breathtaking.

            The biggest portion of his presentation was from the time he, his wife and baby girl had moved to Phoenix, Arizona. He described himself as very anxious and finding many things bizarre in this new place he called home. One of those things being how everywhere you looked you’d see walls up. He wondered why people bothered putting up these fences and walls around yards and pieces of land that was just dust, dirt and rocks. What was the point? Then he began to take pictures of every wall he came across. The final product was him lining up all the random walls to create one long mismatched wall. This thing that had bothered him had become a piece of art.

            The wall project led to another project which eventually led to another. I liked that from one project he was inspired to see a different aspect of it and pursue it by taking pictures, just to see where it led him. He noticed that he saw multiple airplanes everyday walking to and from class. He began to take pictures of all that he saw. He lined them all up in a grid, he even took pixelated pictures and began blowing them up to larger sizes. He acknowledged that in your photo classes in school they tell you automatically to stray away from that. But he liked that there was something abstract, yet meaningful about it and continued to take more pixelated pictures. Perhaps my favorite piece of his was one dealing with airplanes. He took pictures in one place of all the airplanes that flew over. He later overlayed them on the same picture and it looked like a swarm of planes. It was simple, yet very intense in someways; it was amazing.

            Bryon also told us of this special film that companies no longer produce. It was his absolute favorite. He had been saving it, thinking he’d come across this perfect thing to shoot it with when suddenly one day he realized, because he was holding out to use it, he would never actually use it. He used this film to take 20 shots of his daughter, himself, and his wife around their house. It was something very meaningful to him and was a way for them all to spend time together. I think he should be very proud of that.

            Bryon Darby, husband, dad, and talent designer wowed me with his projects. He showed that things you see everyday are your biggest pieces of art. The lecture was very informative and inspiring.