Our Land, The Good Earth

Dianne Carroll Burdick, a Western Mi. University graduate with a BFA in Photography, is a free-lance photographer in West Michigan Her clients include USA Today, Grand Valley State University, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids Community College, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, United Way, The Salvation Army, School News Network and Opera Grand Rapids. She has been a Photography Instructor at Grand Rapids Community College and is currently a Continuing Studies Instructor at Kendall College of Art and Design where she teaches Digital Photography. She gives workshops at Lowell Arts Council and Frederic Meijer Gardens. She has participated in over fifty art exhibitions and her work is included in six books. Dianne is the recipient of thirty awards in Photography. Her images are on the Grammy-nominated CD of Debra Henson-Conent with the Grand Rapids Symphony. Her book Listen to the Landscape was released in August of 2006, a collection of twenty-eight hand-colored photographs, with haiku by Linda Nemec Foster, and published by Eerdmans Publishing, in it’s 2^nd edition. She provided the images for the CD Treasures From the Great Lakes, Music for Bassoon, Horn and Piano., released in July of 2009.  This was also a multi-media presentation that was performed/ viewed throughout that year. Her  book, Tasting and Touring Michigan’s Homegrown Food, A Culinary Road Trip, holds over 250 images of Michigan and was published May 2012 by Arbutus Press, written by Jaye Beeler. Her latest book, Antique Apples,  was published in the Fall of 2015 featuring Michigan apples, Arbutus Press. She lives with her husband Rob Burdick in their 130-year-old Heritage Hill home in Grand Rapids.

I have been concentrating my work on landscapes. I love to photograph the land and connect to nature. I do this by walking the land and taking pictures. I not only notice the natural details of the land, but also the marks of humanity. I see fences, fields, orchards, paths, roads, shadows, clouds, barns, markets and the food grown there.  I have taken thousands of pictures of food and the land where it is grown. I became intrigued by grouping the images by location, color, or intent.  I consider my experience and the aesthetic quality of an image as I photograph, process and print.  I expand the creative process in post production as well as the conceptual idea. As a motivated self-employed freelancer and educator, I yearn for the solitude and learning experiences found only by quietly observing the natural world. Working outdoors is essential to fuel my passion and creativity.  Nature informs my work.