Nico DeBarmore has covered a lot of ground. From the mountains and deserts of the Southwest, to cypress swamps in the Deep South, he is exploring the world and capturing what he sees through the lens of his cameras, a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 5DS R. For the present, the Raleigh, North Carolina-native lives in Columbus, serving in the U.S. Air Force.
Passionate about travel, DeBarmore is committed to photographing not only the extraordinary landscapes on the planet, but also its people and cultures. Scenes from the American West and South are the focus of an exhibit currently on display through January at the Columbus Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center in downtown Columbus.
Some of the nation’s awe-inspiring vistas are in the collection. The Snake River Overlook in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and a Bryce Canyon sunrise in Utah are among them. Remarkable sandstone formations in Arizona’s Lower Antelope Canyon and the snow-capped peaks of the Tetons are his subjects as well.
While photographing in the South, DeBarmore visited locales including Louisiana’s inimitable French Quarter and Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. From a gossamer veil of Spanish Moss to the parched earth of Death Valley National Park, DeBarmore welcomes the diverse view.
Fortitude
“Getting the shot” often requires determination and patience, not to mention the occasional measure of courage.
For the image “Storm Breaking in Zion Canyon” in Utah, DeBarmore hiked miles with his equipment, negotiating narrow ridge trails with dizzying drop-offs on either side. When he reached his lofty destination, he had to wait out a storm.
“It was really quite precarious,” he says. “I got up there and was just hoping the storm would break; I was hunkered down at the top of this cliff edge.” After a stand-off of about an hour and a half, Mother Nature cooperated. Clouds parted briefly, allowing DeBarmore to capture a stunning image.
Another photograph in the Columbus exhibit is sunrise at Utah’s Bryce Canyon. While DeBarmore was able to shoot from an accessible overlook, it took four or five visits to the site to get the desired light.
“Typically a lot of photos are like that,” he says. “It takes determination and expectation and a plan to get something, going repeatedly and doing your best to get the shot.” Sunrise and sunset are “the really beautiful times of day” when photographing landscapes, he notes.
Landscapes are not DeBarmore’s only subjects. His experiences interacting with cultures ranging from Serbian to Brazilian and Cambodian to Tanzanian provide a strong foundation and understanding for communication beyond the realm of language, he says.
“My passion for photography has brought me to many out-of-the-way places and introduced me to quite a few interesting individuals,” he shares on his website, nicodebarmore.com. While not part of the current exhibit at the arts center, images from exotic locations, including India, can be viewed on the site.
DeBarmore looks forward to more travel in the future, especially to photograph different cultures and faces. He hopes to take his camera into Yosemite National Park, too. He wants to get back to the mountains. “The mountains definitely have my heart,” he says.
Wherever he ends up, DeBarmore will have his cameras close at hand. “I just try to make the most of anywhere I am.”
The exhibit “Miles Across America: Scenes from the American West and South,” is on display through the end of the month. The arts center is located at 501 Main St. in downtown Columbus, open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
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Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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