BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR

TOP: The photographer working in the back swamp. Above: in the darkroom, hanging a print to dry.

When Clyde Butcher graduated college with a degree in architecture, he never thought that landscape photography would become his life’s work.

Popular Photography magazine has described him as the next Ansel Adams, who is known as the father of landscape photography.

Butcher was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His dad was a sheet metal worker, and he moved his family around the country as he searched for work.

“The sheet metal business in Kansas City got really bad, and the government was looking for workers,” he said.

They moved from Missouri to Paducah, Kentucky, then to Ohio, and finally to California. In California, his father was permanently injured in a scaffolding accident and could no longer work.

“We stopped moving, and I finished high school and went to college there, and my first couple of businesses were in California.”

It was in college that he met Niki, who would become his wife.

Architecture is what led him to photography. He began photographing architectural models.

“That was how I learned how to see. It’s really important for a person who’s going to try to do art that you learn how to see,” he said. “That was one of the things we were taught in architecture.”

He worked for architects, doing model photography and some design work, until he was laid off in 1971. At that point, he had a wife and two young children to support. Someone suggested he take his black-and-white photos to sell at a local art festival.

Butcher earned more money that weekend than he ever did in a week as an architect. He never returned to architecture after that.

Death and discovery

For the most part, Butcher made his living working in color photography until 1985. His large-scale color prints were sold in department stores as wall décor. Until that time, black-and-white photography was a hard sell.

The Butchers made the move to Florida in 1985 and settled in Fort Myers.

Clyde Butcher in his darkroom with his assistant, Neal Obendorf. COURTESY PHOTOS

“I hadn’t seen anything other than the beach until I saw Tom Gaskins’ place (Cypress Knee Museum) in Fisheating Creek,” he said.

Gaskins lived in the swamp near Okeechobee.

“Niki wanted to stop and see his little tourist thing.”

It was the first time either one of them had experienced the swamp — and they were hooked.

“I just fell in love with it,” Butcher said.

Clyde and Niki found their current 13-acre property in Big Cypress Swamp back in the ’80s. They established a home there and eventually opened a gallery. The property also features two cottages that visitors may rent. They live in Venice, but also operate Butcher’s studio and gallery in Big Cypress.

That move to the swamp was the catalyst for his shooting only in black-andwhite. His favorite photo, “Moonrise, Western Everglades” was taken in 1986, after the death of his 17-year-old son, Ted, who was killed by a drunk driver that year.

Clyde Butcher’s photo of Casey Key on display at Historic Spanish Point.

On his website, Butcher describes how he came to shoot it and the photos that followed.

He has written, “Only in black and white can I see design and textures. I don’t consider color photography art. Black and white is an interpretation. Color is a duplication.”

Butcher is famous for his use of a large format camera — a large 8-by-10-inch box. He takes his Everglades pictures while standing in the waters of the swamp. And he ain’t afraid of no gators!

“I’ve never heard of anybody getting hurt by gators in the wilderness,” he said.

Of course, gators on golf courses and around people’s homes are another matter. They’re familiar with people — and often it’s because people feed them. He related a story of an airboat operator in the Ten Thousand Islands.

“One of these guys that take out airboat rides would pound on the side of the boat with his hand so the gators would come up to him. They’re attracted to sound. That is why you must move quietly and slowly (when walking through the swamp waters). A gator took his hand and he got fined.

Clyde Butcher at Gator Hook.

“Gators are not interested in a huge, big human. They like fish and other small animals. Oh, they love little poodles, too.”

You might think that this is why the Butchers have no pets, but Butcher is actually allergic to most furry beings. Plus, the couple would not have been able to travel as much as they have.

“Pets would have just tied us down,” he said.

The swamp inhabitants are his pets.

Surviving a stroke

He loves sharing the swamp experience with visitors and, for many years, he led swamp walks through Big Cypress. Visitors still come from miles around to brave the swamp with his tour guides. The tours may be booked on Butcher’s website ( www.clydebutcher.com ).

He has taken some famous folks on these walks, including President Jimmy Carter. Butcher shared part of a conversation he had with the former president.

Clyde Butcher in Big Gully. NIKI BUTCHER / COURTESY PHOTO

“He said to me ‘Is it difficult to do what you have to go through to do this?’ and I said ‘Well, is it difficult to run for president?’”

Butcher took Carter on a swamp walk, accompanied by Secret Service agents who, unlike the president, were none too thrilled to be walking among alligators and snakes.

“They were nervous and figured it would be a 10-minute walk. I said to myself that’s not going to work. We got to the point where they wanted to turn back, and I said if we go straight here, it gets prettier and deeper. I’m sure they were afraid he was going to get eaten by an alligator.

“But the problem would have been if they would have shot a gator. The bullet could have bounced off the gator’s skull and killed him (Carter).”

“Clyde Butcher represents what we hope all great artists in our country hold true in their work: the responsibility of communicating the goodness of our world through the arts,” is how Carter has described Butcher’s work.

Butcher has walked the swamp with Marjory Stoneman Douglas (who wrote “The Everglades: River of Grass”), many politicians, CBS News, NBC News, “Good Morning America” and other national news people.

“But you know, to me they’re all the same. Everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time.”

Six years ago, he suffered a stroke.

“I was in hospital five weeks. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t think I’d ever do photographs again, but with my walker now, I’ve gone where no man has taken a walker before.”

He was back to work about five months later, only this time he began using a medium-format, digital camera, which is much easier to carry. He has even climbed a ladder, held steady by Niki, to get over a fence to get that perfect shot. His doctor was not pleased.

Butcher has traveled all over the country taking photos and has published several books with photos taken in the National Parks, the Everglades and Cuba, among others.

He hopes he’s remembered as an environmentalist and an educator. Butcher believes in solar power and uses it at both his properties in Venice and the Everglades.

“We have to stop burning carbon. I see Elon Musk as a No. 1 environmentalist in the world today,” he said, describing Musk’s production of electric vehicles and his use of solar panels and turbines. “Basically, his plan is to get us off of carbon.”

Butcher praised Selby Gardens, which also administers Historic Spanish Point, for its carbon-neutral plan.

“I think that’s important to see that other people are doing the right thing. President Biden’s trying. He’s the first one that’s tried to do it. No other president has actually pushed electric cars. They’ve talked about it, but they haven’t done anything about it until now.”

Clyde Butcher’s large images are currently on display at Historic Spanish Point in Osprey. The exhibition, “Clyde Butcher: Nature Through the Lens,” runs through Aug. 31. His work will also be on display in September at Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, New Mexico. He welcomes visitors and fans of his work to his galleries in Venice and Big Cypress.

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