Bruce Doll’s photograph reflects a morning walk through Lowell in January

“For me, I think art is just beautiful,” Doll said. “If it does something for you, if it moves you, if you feel like you could be in that picture, it’s a good thing.”

By Justin Tiemeyer - Contributing Writer

9/21/2024

For photographer Bruce Doll, art does not have to be three stories tall and reflect a pressing topic in world affairs. It is enough for a piece of art merely to look good.

“For me, I think art is just beautiful,” Doll said. “If it does something for you, if it moves you, if you feel like you could be in that picture, it’s a good thing.”

This is the perspective Doll took for his piece “Morning Walk,” which reflects a cold and dismal morning walking through the streets of Lowell in January of 2024. Doll had just driven his wife to work in their Jeep because the roads were horrible. The ground was covered with a dirty mix of snow and rain, and it was bitter cold.

“It was just such a rotten day,” Doll said, but he found beauty in this particular rotten day.

Among the many photographs he snapped that day, one stood out to him. It was a shot pointing East along Main Street just before its intersection with Riverside Drive, depicting a row of trees and streetlamps, the clock at that corner, the steps leading up to Riverside Dentistry, and Easy Street Restaurant & Bar just across the way. The entirety of the subject is wet and covered with slush, and the light is refracted by air thick with moisture.

Doll, a big supporter of Lowell’s many businesses and nonprofit organizations, had intended to call the photograph “Easy Street” after the nearby restaurant, and there is still an artifact of that decision in the final piece. Just above the “One Way” sign, there is a green street sign that should read “Riverside,” which, in fact, reads “Easy Street” in a lazy italic font.

Doll describes his post-production editing process as “experimental.” There were a ton of different operations, one on top of the other, and he did quite a bit of hand painting just to get the image right. 

“If I had to do this again,” Doll speculated, “I don’t think that I could do it.”

In the distance, there is a woman depicted walking down the street, and in the original photograph she had a dog with her, but Doll did not like the dog, so he cut the dog out.

Doll took the photograph with his Samsung Galaxy phone, and anyone who has tried to use their phone in the dead of a Michigan winter has got to be wondering, “Why would you do that to yourself?” He made it clear that he did not lose any of his fingers to frost bite for the sake of “Morning Walk.” Doll, who worked at New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab for 18 years, is not afraid of new technology, and he employs a ShiftCam ProGrip to control the shudder of the camera on his phone with gloves on. Of course, if he wants to zoom in or out, he still has to take those gloves off and expose himself to the elements.

Doll noted that he has entered ArtPrize five or six times now, but “Morning Walk” is his favorite of his entries. He submitted the same piece to the West Michigan Art Competition held by Lowell Arts earlier this year.

“The timing worked out there pretty good.”

Doll’s photograph is on display at Park Church, adjacent to the Veteran’s Memorial Park and the Grand Rapids Public Library. The side door to the church is propped open and marked as an ArtPrize venue, and “Morning Walk” is located to the right as one enters the church.

Park Church has hosted Doll’s photography each year he has entered ArtPrize.

“Entering ArtPrize is easy,” Doll said. “You pay your $65, and you’re in. Finding a venue is the hard part.”

ArtPrize hosts some 1600 artists across 180 venues, and that is just the number of artists whose works find a home. What remains unknown is how many artists actually apply, which is estimated at three to four times that number. This forces artists to really get out there and work to find a venue. From there, the people in the heavier foot traffic areas, like DeVos Hall, for example, stand a better chance of placing and winning, and often only if their pieces are monumentally large and accompanied by a political or captivating artist statement.

Doll enlarged his “Morning Walk” piece until it was 5.5 feet tall by 3 feet wide, but there is a print right next to it that is much smaller, something like 15 inches by 20 inches.

“You have to get in pretty close to see,” Doll said.

Doll’s perspective on ArtPrize challenges viewers to take a few steps forward and give some attention to the smaller pieces, which are no less beautiful for their lack of a larger canvas. After all, art cannot be boxed up, limited by venue, size requirements, or topicality. Art is art.

You can vote for ArtPrize via the Flockx app until Thursday, September 26, two days before the end of ArtPrize 2024. If you are interested in voting for “Morning Walk,” its Voting ID number is 25141. Doll’s prints are also available for purchase by emailing him at Bruce@imagesofvision.com, checking out his website at imagesofvision.com, or tracking him down on Facebook at facebook.com/gotome.