Thomas Kirchen

Thomas has been a serious amateur photographer for most of his adult life. He has spent many hours over the years developing film and processing prints in the traditional darkroom. A native of San Francisco, he was reared, schooled, and worked in California’s Silicon Valley. After working 30 years in various management positions, he and his wife Kathy retired and moved to Southern Oregon in 1994. In retirement he had the time to renew his passion for photography. Four years ago he converted totally to digital photography and his first digital SLR was an Olympus 2500 L. Since then, several camera up-grades have served to motivate him to acquire more sophisticated equipment. He currently photographs with the Nikon D1X system.

Thomas' digital images have won numerous awards including over 400 photographs that have appeared over 500 times on several international Web sites during the past four years. These include more than 30 winners as photo of the month finalists. Tom received award ribbons for photographs on display at the AAUW Southern Oregon Art Shows in 2002, 2003 and 2004. His work was displayed in a group show of DPI members, July 2002, at the Firehouse Gallery in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Photographer’s Statement

Everything is of great interest and photographable, but landscapes are most fascinating, in that being a silent observer, you actually become part of what you are documenting without being in the image. My intent is always to present factual interpretations of what I see in a scene’s composition and colors.