Visions of Florida

Woody Walters is one of Florida's major fine-art photographers. In this collection of his pictures of the land and its people, Walters captures images, in infinite shadings of black and white, that transport viewers on a light trip through his native state.

"A magical book . . . filled with plate after plate of captivating, black and white images. . . . a snarling Florida panther, sea oats at Longboat Key, the Loxahatchee, Fisheating Creek untouched. Walters reminds us of what we want to keep."--Florida Wildlife

Just as a white surface reflects all the colors of the spectrum, Walters' photographs of nature radiate his range of vision. From morning mist in Tallahassee to lightning streaks during an evening storm on Longboat Key, he uncovers the delicacy and power of nature, and he laments its violation in the name of progress.

"There is a hidden richness in the sparse landscape, the flat terrain, and the tropical marsh that makes Florida quietly beautiful," he writes. "But the beauty we see today is only a shadow of yesterday. The land was left to us in trust. We must protect it for our children."

His compassionate pictures of people portray the face-- sometimes the price--of survival on this land.

Walters says he photographs Florida as a labor of love; the rigors of his craft test this affection. Because he prefers to work with a large camera, he frequently hauls sixty pounds of equipment in a knapsack. Swarms of mosquitoes often force him to douse himself with an equivalent amount of insect repellent. Waist-high muck is not uncommon. Rain is inevitable.

But none of that matters when he snaps the shutter, letting in light to fix an image already formed in his mind, an image that becomes his personal vision of Florida.

Woody Walters' work appears in museums and galleries and in corporate and private collections around the world, including the Ansel Adams archives and the Tampa Museum of Art. He has received numerous Best of Show and Best of Photography awards in art shows throughout the United States, and his images have been reproduced in magazines and books and on quality posters and calendars.

Walters was born and grew up in Sarasota, Florida. He graduated from Hawkeye College in Waterloo, Iowa, and worked as a commercial photographer in New York and Atlanta before returning to his home state. In addition to his fine-art work, he conducts workshops on visualization and zone system photography and on the use of the large format view camera. When not on the road, he lives in Ft. Myers.