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Quoting several entries in photographer, Daryl Phillips’ current resume: “The natural world has always inspired me with its beauty, complexity and its life sustaining qualities. I love to find connections between nature and our lives as humans. As I wander through any given landscape, appreciating and discovering every aspect of creation, I am consistently inspired by what I see and experience … My photographs are an expression of that experience. When using nature as a metaphor for ideas and concepts, I inevitably discover latent depths of beauty and meaning …” Growing up in the country outside Chatham—and later, as a youth in that city—Phillips developed a, for him, discernible visual viewpoint: seeing, as he phrases it, latent abstraction in closeup surfaces and layers. And knew enough at that young age to get himself a camera to capture those images. And his post-secondary education choice, in the mid-eighties was easy: enrolling to study photography at Fanshawe College in London—where he received not only technical training, but studied the history of photography plus other academic subjects. Soon after graduation, he met and married a young woman and moved to Owen Sound and, in short order, became the father of two sons. He pursued commercial photography (portraits and weddings) on a part time basis and worked, as well, in the construction industry. He submitted artistic photo works and was accepted into a local juried show and a group exhibition. At one point, however, Phillips found himself losing creative perspective and living in a lengthy state of limbo—with his marriage failing and resulting in divorce. And he ended up moving to St. Catherines where a cousin lived and where he found work in construction. And shortly thereafter met and married his present wife, Louisa. The marriage stabilized him and he was soon back to finding and shooting photos in a variety of subject matter again. The couple added a boy and a girl to their lives and, after discovering the Bancroft area—with its abundance of hills and lakes—decided to move here in 2018—with Daryl utilizing his construction skills to build them a lovely large and spacious house with a combination of main living quarters and modern B&B wing (they call it Cedarhaus). |
And he, of course, still finds the time to pursue his photography goals: shooting pictures and videos of the local and more northern landscapes (like Killarney)—while exploring antique photography printing techniques and using a pinhole camera to capture unique closeups and vistas. He had some works accepted into recent Art Gallery of Bancroft juried shows and has plans for a solo show at some point in the near future. And is, of course preparing new photo art works for the upcoming studio tour to be showcased in the B&B wing of his homestead at 23 Vanluven Lane, Bancroft. Daryl can be contacted at darlscottphillips@gmail.com (Profile writing and photo by Allan O’Marra) |
