Fire & Ice: From a Pittsburgh steel mill to Greenland fjords
Jan. 30—PLATTSBURGH — Photographer Denis Defibaugh's start in his art began like most photographers in childhood back in the day.
His first plastic camera was turned on his immediate world — family, pets, natural world — that he documented.
"I'm still documenting now," the RIT professor of photography emeritus said.
"So that really hasn't changed much."
The photographer and author's exhibition, "North by Nuuk: Greenland after Rockwell Kent" opens Feb. 1 and runs through March 11 at the Burke Gallery, Myers Fine Arts Building, SUNY Plattsburgh.
He gives an "Artist Lecture" on Feb. 2, 7 — 8 p.m. in Yokum Building, Room 202.
An exhibition reception will be held Feb. 3, 5 — 7 p.m. in the Myers Lobby Gallery.
Defibaugh never really considered photography as a career choice.
After two years in the voluntary draft during the Vietnam War, Defibaugh emerged without a tour in country and a Pentax Spotmatic camera, his first SLR.
When he separated from the military in 1972, he returned home outside of Pittsburgh, Pa. to work in a steel mill there.
"Every lunch, we would get together with workers," he said.
"These old timers that had been in the mill for like 40 years. They would be bitching at me for working in the mill. They said, 'Why don't you go get an education?' And I go, 'I am going to go get an education. I'm just trying to make some money to do that.'
"He goes, 'Where are you going to go to school for?'
"I said 'I want to go to school for photography.'
"He goes, 'You should go to RIT.'
"I go 'RIT? I never heard of RIT.'
"He goes, 'It's a very good photography school.'
"I go, 'Why is it so good?
"He goes, 'I don't know. They teach the zone system there.'
"I said, 'What's the zone system?'
"He goes, 'I don't know, but you need to know it.'
"This is an old guy, a really great guy. He had been in the steel mill his whole life."
Within two weeks Defibaugh drove to Rochester and met with RIT Admissions Office.
In 1974, there were tons of students. He was out of luck.
Two weeks later, Defibaugh received a phone call. He was in if he came.
"By then, it was like the beginning of August," he said.
"I'm thinking how am I going to do this? I can't turn this down. This would be crazy. So, I said yes, and I started school in September. That's kind of how I got into photography."
At RIT, he studied advertising photography and earned his bachelor's of science in 1977.
After a photography and teaching career in Georgia, Colorado and Texas, he returned to his alma mater to teach in 1987.
A decade later, he earned a master's of science in the graphic arts, type and design program.
Defibaugh always taught photography until his retirement in 2020.
He took a leave of absence followed by a sabbatical in 2016-17 to walk in artist Rockwell Kent's footsteps in Greenland.
STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND
Kent's mid-1929 and early-1935 sojourns now offers a window into Greenland's past.
Defibaugh's 21st century sojourn, 85 years later, captures Greenland's evolution.
In the middle of winter, his favorite season in Greenland, Defibaugh decided to go out into the fjords and photograph icebergs stuck in distant ice.
"I start walking out into fjords, and I hear, 'Denis! Denis!'" he said.
"It was these two girls that lived there. Every time I would be out photographing, the kids would somehow find me."
Defibaugh and the Inuit girls walked out to the icebergs.
Like always, he let them take photographs, too.
"These girls are just fearless," he said.
"They are not afraid of anything. As we're walking along, one of the girls says, 'Danger. Danger. Ice bear.' I said, 'Yeah, we're going out to the iceberg.' She says, 'No, no, no. Ice bear.' I go, 'Polarbear. She says, 'Yeah.'
""These girls aren't afraid of anything, and you could see that they were really nervous, and they wanted to turn back. I said, 'Okay, let's turn back.'"
Defibaugh never saw a polar bear while in Greenland.
"It was snowing, and you couldn't see very far because of the snow and everything was white," he said.
"She had a sense there was danger. The possibility was there, and I felt like if these girls are afraid, then I should be."
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