Photographing the perfect moment

When asked what a perfect day with his camera would look like, local photographer and businessman Greg Gusse responded, “Photographers can’t deal in days. Our world is very, very tiny slices of time that we capture or steal and then show them off as if we owned that instant.”

So, what about a perfect moment?

He says that is when “a poem and an image rise together with synergy, and I am in harmony with them and I can breathe out.”

Greg is a Palmer gallery owner who confesses that, “My work is all about art, my own (art) is just another person in the web. I manage art, I support art, I provide resources for artists, I supply artists, I write about art — pretty much, I live art.”

Key players in his life are his wife, Julie, and his company partner, Pam Strahan. However, his fellow business folk and community artists also contribute to making every day “intellectually and artistically exciting.”

Besides arranging art shows for his Alaska Gallery at Madd Matters, he showcases artists at other downtown Palmer venues, such as Vagabond Blues, Palmer Arts Council and Turkey Red, expanding upon the ever-growing Valley Second Saturday, which extends from Palmer to Wasilla once a month.

For Make-A-Scene newspaper (available free in coffee shops), Greg writes a monthly article where he offers artists useful information and challenges their professionalism.

When it comes to shooting his own art, he proclaims, “My favorite photography is outdoor action portraits of people and animals, unstaged and natural. I’m very good at it, at capturing the emotions of the moment.”

One exciting moment came as he was “being charged by a musk ox at Serpentine Hot Springs and trying to figure out how to get a shot before (his) demise.” He says, “I did!” And, in the process, learned “surprisingly, that musk ox have big, pointy ears.”

His other interest is photographing “Native dance, both indoor and out.”

A favorite moment, he says, came at “Cape Krusenstern (while) taking the ‘Whale Bone’ shot that became the centerpiece of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act celebrations a few years ago. When I was there, I felt the weight of at least 9,000 years of culture and the tremendous honor to produce a representative image of a great people.”

He proclaims that, “My landscape work is an art ‘thing.’” Yet the technical aspects seem to play a big part. “Unlike most photographers, I use a very long focal length and narrow field. This produces an image that is compelling to me, more intimate.”

On his web site, you will find his favorite equipment under “Greg’s Camera Bag,” where he mentions his Canon 40D.

“I am all digital and have been since 2003. I needed a digital camera that would function at 50 below — well, at least for a couple of shots. Only Canon’s battery system and CMOS sensor would cut the tundra,” which was important to him while living in Kotzebue.

The lens he mentions is a 28-300mm that’s especially great for wedding photography.

“As far as I know, no other lens puts so much into such a compact container,” he says. “And it produces super sharp images, even wide open. (In addition), it is an easy carry on a mountain bike or kayak.”

His latest camera is the Canon 5D Mark II.

“Like a lot of folks, I consider it the best camera on the market,” he says, but for the sake of past fulfilling moments, he confesses that “I get out my old Koni 6X9 and pet it, remember it, talk to it.”

His first serious digital was the Kodak Pro 14, “one of the first full-frame digital bodies” that is still useful for its wonderful images.

When photographing artwork for local artists and printing their giclees, he refers to it as his “day job.” This type of computer printing is becoming more popular for an artist to have duplicate images of original artwork made available in a variety of sizes and at affordable prices.

Gusse’s website boasts of some major accomplishments, including the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Alaska National Interest Lands Claim Act (that) features an 8-foot by 10-foot print of his work.

Another honor came when the National Parks Conservation chose eight images by Gusse for its report “Whose Counting,” including front and back covers.

When asked about these accolades, Greg responded, “The awards I have received are nothing compared to the honor of playing a part in real conservation efforts and the personal pride that I have produced my work without ever interfering with the natural course of animals or people in their respective environments. I believe conservation ethics are the first step in conservation photography.”

About the future of photography he states, “I think photography will continue to blossom as a primary means of communication in our modern world and will become more and more an art form rather than the opposite.”

He continues, “I look at it like language. Just because a lot of folks learned to talk didn’t put storytellers and poets out of business; quite the contrary. Their art became better and better. True, there will continue to be fewer opportunities for sales. So what? Art is not about money.”

Greg Gusse’s artwork can be seen at Madd Matters,105 E. Arctic Ave. in Palmer, with a group show called “Goodbye Fernando” in celebration of the local photographer Fernando Patron (who is moving to San Diego). The opening reception is Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. and open to the public.

Suzanne Bach teaches art at Mat-Su College.