Ian Shepler, Photographer
November 28, 1982 – March 21, 2013
Ian Shepler’s rich world of images and perspectives lay hidden until he discovered photography.
He began taking pictures at age 12 with a Polaroid camera he got for Christmas. Before that, we only knew that he could not see well, and that he was interested in lights. He was very stubborn about stopping to look at things, but he could not talk, so we never knew what he saw, or what he made of his world. Ian thinks cameras and printers are magic.
His first photo show took place at The Chandler Gallery in Randolph Vermont. It was held over by popular demand and won him the cover, the centerfold, an informative article, and a review full of praise in Seven Days, the Vermont arts weekly. The show, “Bridging Worlds”, included 125 pictures taken with a digital camera and titled with great deliberation to show us our world, from Ian’s arresting perspective.
Asked how photography has changed his life, Ian types a poiniant message, I am part of life and not just a watcher.
Ian Shepler lives in Randolph, Vermont. He can speak only a few words, and can type only with facilitation. He makes every word and image count.
Reviews
Ian Shepler knows how to come up with evocative titles for his photographs.
Ian is an abstractionist of the finest order. He has a keen appreciation of the way lines forms and values relate to each other in visual space,
These photographs at their essence show us what really seeing the world is about.
Some are mundane, some are startlingly beautiful, but what makes most of these pictures noteworhy is the attention to angles, perspective and visual rhythms that might elude the casual viewer.
(Pamela Paulson – Seven Days)