CAYO COSTA ISLAND #3 Cayo Costa Island State Park, Flonda, U.S.A.©1991 "June, when the sun is at its northernmost point, is the only month in which to photograph this part of the island. My wife, Niki, and I spent an entire month in our boat anchored off the island waiting for the nght light and perfect cloud formations for a photograph. I love the beauty and power of an approaching storm, but while waiting for this shot, Niki and I came close to being overtaken by a violent thunderstorm. All around us boats were heading for cover, while I waited for the right moment to take this picture. Finally, the moment came, I took the photograph, and then we headed for the safety of the harbor, which we reached just as the storm broke around us."

Some years before, while travelling around Florida, It was a chance stop at Tom Gaskin's Cypress Knee "museum" on Route 27 where Clyde first happened upon the magical intoxication of Florida's natural wetlands. Clyde says of this visit to Gaskin's place: 'lt was really strange. Driving along Florida's rural roads, even being 10 feet away from it, I couldn't see it. Yet, the minute I passed through a couple of trees and got into that swamp, I started getting a feeling for it and really got excited about it." It would not be until almost a decade later that Clyde Butcher, photographic artist, would emerge from those same swamps.

Born in Kansas City in 1942, Clyde graduated with a degree in architecture from California Polytechnic Institute. He married, had two children, and along with a partner developed a very successful commercial photographic printing business in California. That success encouraged Clyde to start another venture, which eventually went bankrupt. It was then that CIyde moved the family to Florida.

Eventually it would be Oscar Thompson, a fifth-generation "swamp-rat," who showed Clyde the vast Everglades wilderness most of us will never know, except through Clyde's photographs. Thompson, who can navigate the sawgrass by the night stars, find panther by the smell of their dung and call gators to him like puppies, became a long time friend who helped Clyde understand the Everglades.

In the Everglades, Clyde found a "world purified of human contact" where he could be alone with his thoughts. Splashed by the sea, swarmed by mosquitoes and standing for hours in driving rain in swamps with alligators swimming by, he has waited for hours for that one perfect moment when the light is just right.

It is Clyde's genius to bring trees and grass into focus as the complex web of life in which we are all enfolded. He doesn't look through the lens to decide on a picture; he waits to sense a spiritual connection, the moment of artistic balance that mirrors the ecosystem itself. Look into any of his photos and you will sense that you are in the presence of the origin of life.

OCHOPEE Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, US.A. ©1986 "This photograph was taken on the side of the road. Some of the most beautiful scenes are not noticed when driving by them at 70 mph. This was one of the first black and white photographs I took with my 8" x l 0" view camera after my son was killed by a drunk driver. This was also one of the photographs that encouraged me to change from color photography and begin, once again, to photograph with black and white film."

In each of his photographs, Clyde captures a panorama flawless in detail and impossible to absorb in a single glance. Every strand of grass is deeply etched; the contours of distant clouds recorded in all their dramatic complexity. The overaII effect is that the viewer is put on intimate terms with nature, raw and untouched by man.

A master at capturing nature's whimsy and drama, Clyde's work draws you in, forcing you to explore every detail. Each of his photos is a wilderness trip. Clyde says,"I want you to explore the photograph. In the woods you're scanning nature. That's how I want people to experience my photographs - to scan them; to move around and to experience them."