Bill Bernbeck
Bio
Artist Statement
Gallery
My
Walkabout Journal
Imagery by Bill Bernbeck
About me...
It started when I was given an inexpensive, plastic box camera to
use on a family vacation to
Florida.
I was about 12 years old.
There were no instructions, and the camera had no controls.
I happily clicked away at everything.
I was relishing showing my friends what I had seen over this
vacation. When the
developed pictures arrived, I remember my disappointment as I
watched each picture come out blurry and crooked.
All, that is, except for one.
Somehow, one picture, taken in a garden in St Augustine, had come out
exactly as I remembered.
That
single success launched me into the photographer’s art and craft.
I
was shaped by my other influences.
The outdoor adventures of boy scouts; sailing small craft on
the Great Lakes; the dedication of competitive sport; developing
confidence in a skilled trade; discovering the vastness of the world
and its people through reading and literature; these experiences
filtered into a desire to express them in my photography.
I developed a wanderlust that is with me to this day
My engineering
career took me through a lot of
America.
Professionally, I developed fire control instrumentation for
a naval torpedo in Minnesota; tested explosive ordnance in the
deserts of Arizona; worked on a Mars lander for NASA in Colorado;
designed components for nuclear power plants in Buffalo; and
developed one of the first distributed control systems using fiber
optics in Rochester. I
hold professional engineering licenses in both New York and Colorado.
I continue to provide consulting services to a number of
clients.
I have been
fortunate to have worked with the Eastman Kodak Company.
Kodak’s influence in photography gave me the opportunity to
see the work of many talented and knowledgeable photographic
artists. I achieved
recognition at several Kodak International Salons, including the
Pathe’ Award for color print excellence, the
Australasia award for color slide excellence, and a
Kodak International News Snapshot Award.
I was the inaugural chairman for the Kodak Camera Club
Photojournalism section.
Together with
several colleagues and friends, I helped found Image City
Photography Gallery in
Rochester NY.
Image
City, now in its fourth year of
operation, provides a venue exclusively for exhibition of
photographic art.
Above all, I
have been blessed with a loving wife and children.
I am further blessed to be a member of a warm and wonderful
family. And I now have
lovely and cuddly grandchildren to bounce on my knee and ultimately
spoil.
email
Bill.Bernbeck@ImageCityPhotographyGallery.com