About Our Art...
The artist, Gary Fern, describes his life as unextraordinary, yet it is shaped by six decades of honest work and lived experience. Beginning his first job at the age of ten, he worked continuously for sixty years across a wide range of professions, including farm worker, dishwasher, dock worker with the Teamsters, Chicago Yellow Cab driver, waiter, laborer, underground coal miner, and UAW auto worker. Along the way, Gary served his country during Desert Storm as a member of the Navy Seabees, working in construction.
During these years, he pursued formal studies in photography at Columbia College in Chicago and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Like many of his generation coming of age during photography’s idealistic era, he once dreamed—along with his peers—of working for a prestigious magazine, when it seemed that anything was possible. Practical responsibilities, however, took precedence, and photography gradually receded from his life for more than three decades as he focused on supporting his family.
Since rediscovering photography in 2000, Gary has returned to the medium with renewed purpose and depth. His work is informed by a lifetime of labor, service, and observation, reflecting a deep respect for everyday life and the quiet dignity found within it.
The photographs in this exhibition center on light and implied motion—how light shifts, grazes, and animates objects, both man-made and natural. Through changing angles, shadows, and reflections, light suggests movement even within stillness, giving form and energy to otherwise quiet scenes. Whether interacting with industrial structures or elements of the natural world, this interplay invites viewers to slow down and sense the subtle rhythms that connect the built environment with nature.
Each photograph on display may be purchased for $100. To purchase or for pricing on other sizes and options, please contact Gary at [email protected]
Gary’s artwork will be displayed at the IAA Credit Union main lobby at 808 IAA Drive, Bloomington, IL during the months of January, February, and March 2026.
