His photographic career began in the late 1950s with the design and production of advertising calendars for U. O. Colson Company. In the 1960s he headed for California, where he landed a job with a motion picture art studio. He was eventually asked to work at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. It was while at Disney's that his interest in photographing the California landscape grew. His love for the great outdoors and the large format camera and negative turned his eye to the fine print for gallery exhibition. He later opened his own photography studio, worked for Ronald Regan on his presidential campaign, and met his mentor, Ansel Adams.
"It was really Ansel Adam's work that turned me to black and white photography. I was so inspired by his approach to the medium that there was no doubt that, with control and visualization, black and white could be superior to any other form. Rarely is my visualization of the scene and my final print a literal representation of the actual subject itself. When I am photographing, I immediately see in my mind's eye something quite different than how the subject may actually appear in reality."
Gillum has recently experimented with the digital process, still using the basics of visualization and technique, with expansion of tones in the final print enhancing the darkroom process of fine art photography. His work has been shown all across the United States and currently is in several Midwest galleries. His website is www.edwardgillumphoto.com.
Edward Gillum
