Eric Hartley's keen eye for the Georgia coast put on display at Great Oaks Bank in Bryan County

In black-and-white, a weather worn skiff sits low and empty in a foggy marsh at high tide. In another image, massive live oak branches twist in stoic force on Ossabaw Island. In another, a wooden staircase spirals upward in the brick lighthouse on Sapelo Island.

Photographer, Eric Hartley, was enamored of the Georgia coast, as well as coastlines around the world, and sought to find and share their hidden magic through his images.

On Friday, you can discover the enchanting work of Eric Hartley when Arts on the Coast honors the photographer at Great Oaks Bank. The show runs through mid-August and features 25 framed, black-and-white images from the artist’s personal collection.

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Hartley and wife Deanna moved to Richmond Hill in 1985 after they’d met, married and had been working in Nashville. Hartley built a career as a financial planner with Morgan Stanley, which he enjoyed, but his true, lifelong passion was photography. In college he’d turned his bathroom into a makeshift darkroom. Wherever he went, Hartley always had a camera.

“When we moved here, the first thing we discussed was building a darkroom,” recalled Deanna Hartley. “He was always taking pictures, it was just how he expressed himself. He had a great eye for it, and he enjoyed the adventure of getting images. We went to Maine four or five summers and drove the coast searching for things to take pictures of. We traveled many places just for photos.”

From Georgia’s barrier islands to Maine and the Pacific Northwest’s jagged coastline, and all the way to Ireland, Hartley was interested in areas where force of nature was palpable and exerted its presence on natural elements and human structures within it.

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When he wasn’t looking for stunning trees or sunrise-lit landscapes, Hartley liked exploring the push-and-pull between unfettered nature and the human desire to order and control it.

One of Deanna Hartley’s favorite images explores the tension of this duality.

It’s a skiff at high tide in the marsh. The horizon is misty, likely early morning, and the boat is so low in the water, you’re not sure if it’s fully floating. The quality of the image is more like a pencil or pen and ink drawing because the light is so diffuse.

“I love the one of the old boat, it conveys so much,” said Hartley. “He took a number of those at high tide and low tide, and both were beautiful, but I like this one because it’s moody and to me it says ‘I’m an old boat, but I’m still here. I’ve weathered the storm, and I’m still in the water.’ I think that’s one message of the photo, but there’s so much more if you look.”

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Hartley’s diligence and creative insight paid off as he began winning photography awards from the Sierra Club. In 1996, he shared a show with photo colleague Curt Hames at Tybee Lighthouse, which opened more doors in local art and photography.

And he kept exploring coastlines, taking photos, and refining his techniques with friend and highly revered photo mentor, Jack Leigh. Hartley came to be known as an art-inspired nature photographer.

Ray Pittman has collected Hartley’s work since the early 2000s and has six of his framed photos on display in a hallway at home. The two met and became friends when Hartley was Rotary Club president and Pittman was heading up his own civil engineering firm. Their friendship took them on boating adventures where they explored marshes, cuts, and creeks from Richmond Hill to the coastal waters of Brunswick.

Whenever Hartley and Pittman set out, it was always for photos.

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“Eric wanted the perfect picture, he was looking for perfection,” emphasized Pittman. “He knew the waterways around here better than anyone I know, and he took me to beautiful, isolated places, places with very old live oaks, huge trees. He would study the natural elements and how light would hit them because he wanted to capture the light perfectly. Eric would return again and again to a place to make the photo right.”

Hartley retired from Morgan Stanley in 2011 and continued making photos until he fell ill and passed away in 2020, leaving a hole in the Richmond Hill art and photography community. The summer-long show at Great Oaks Bank is both reception and celebration of a beloved artist and community member.

Though Emily Doherty never met Hartley, she studied photography at SCAD and learned from some of his same teachers. Doherty now leads the marketing division at Great Oaks and finds it special that a bank embraces art and local artists.

“This is our first show where one artist literally takes over the bank,” said Doherty.

“Eric’s work is typically large, framed photos as big as 24-by-36-inches. These 25 pieces, though not for sale, will hang throughout the bank, and what makes them even more special is that many are pre-digital photography. He developed the images himself, and of course, framed everything by hand. The show is a way for us to celebrate a person who loved living here and documented that through his photos. Everyone is welcome to visit and experience Eric’s work all summer.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Richmond Hill GA things to do: Eric Hartley photography at Great Oaks