Dusty Demerson
“My love for photography began in high school where I began capturing images of friends and scenics with my father’s Nikon S2 rangefinder. Mostly, it was my way of filling my time that I should have been using to do homework. While in college I continued to dabble in photography until they made me choose a major. Since I had taken all the photo classes available and they were the only classes I was passing, I decided to be a journalism major. Now my passion for photography was my homework! In 1978, degree in hand, I set out to win a Pulitzer.
Newspaper photography was my life for the next seven years and although I did not win my Pulitzer Prize, I did receive a number of awards for my images, including one from the National Press Photographers Association. While I was technically a news photographer, actually about 30 hours per week were filled covering high school and college sporting events.
The Newspaper industry and I parted ways in 1984 when I opened a portrait studio in southern Oklahoma. Since I was now self-employed I decided I didn’t need to stay in Oklahoma. I began the search for a photo lab that I could couple my studio with in either Colorado or North Carolina. Crested Butte, Colorado won. The purchase of Color West Photography in 1987 launched another career, this time in nature and landscape images. Color West was closed in 2004, in large part due to the “digital revolution” in photography. I have fully embraced that revolution and the demise of the photo lab has created an abundance of time to concentrate on the more-enjoyable part of the photography business. Creating, printing and marketing images is now my full-time profession.” -Dusty Demerson
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J.C. Leacock
Since the beginning of his professional career in 1988, J. C. Leacock’s creative focus has shifted numerous times, from large format landscapes, to cowboys, to outdoor sports and lifestyles. However, the dominant theme that runs throughout is The American West. For that is where J.C.’s heart and passion lies, in the big skies, prairies, mountains and people of the West. His scenic images capture the magical light, grandeur and intimacy of the American landscape, while his photographic portrayal of western lifestyles, particularly cowboys, is both authentic and spirited.
J.C.’s work has received considerable professional recognition. He was featured as one of Nature’s Best Magazine’s Top Ten Nature Photographers of the Year in 1994. His western lifestyles portfolios have been showcased in both Cowboys & Indians and American Cowboy magazines.
Leacock is widely published nationally, and his images appear in such publications as Backpacker, National Geographic Adventure, Sunset, Outside, Men’s Journal, Cowboys & Indians, and American Cowboy. His work also is published in numerous calendars including Sierra Club, Audubon, Western Horseman and BrownTrout, and he has several exclusive cowboy and cowgirl calendar titles. J.C. has published two exquisitely beautiful books on Colorado: Colorado Closeup (Fulcrum Publishing, 1997) and Our Colorado (Voyageur Press, 2004). A third book, entitled South Dakota Simply Beautiful (Far Country Press, 2004), showcases J.C.’s diverse portfolio. Closer to home, J.C.’s photographs frequently appear in the Crested Butte Magazine and the Colorado State Vacation Guide. Fine art prints of his work are available by contacting the artist, or through the Lucille Lucas Gallery in Crested Butte, Colorado.
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