"Nature is God’s art." Dante

Twenty years ago, the camera gave me an excuse to escape periodically from the pace of life as a trial lawyer and reset my perspective in a fresh environment. It immersed me in nature, forced me to slow down.   Over time, the effort to find and compose images began to teach me to see differently.  It gave me new stories to tell and challenged me to tell them — this time without words.  What began as a way to decompress grew into a new vocation.

The natural world is telling us something. In the midst of our culture’s disorder and strife, the creation is pointing us to an enduring truth, beauty and goodness. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it, "Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.” Nature’s extravagance and cohesion draw us into a transcendent order, inviting us to imagine the world as it ought to be. Words alone are not adequate to tell that story. My aim is to experience the beauty of the created world and the promise it reveals, and make images that express something of that experience.

Keith Dutill
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania