Cedar Key is a rare area in Florida. The island itself is a fun place, complete with restaurants and shops and boats for hire, but surrounding it is wilderness filled with beauty at every turn. Dennis Creek is one of those scenes. Due to my recent stroke, I can’t stand for very long, so I took my walker out along the bridge over the creek and sat down, set up my camera, and waited for the right light. Folks who slowly drove past me must have thought I was crazy to be sitting on a walker on a bridge like that, but finally, the image and the light came together and I was able to capture the scene. This is one of the first photographs I captured after my stroke.

A selection of Clyde Butcher’s photographs will be on exhibit through April 30 at the Cedar Key Arts Center, in a show supported in part by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council. For more than 50 years, photographer Clyde Butcher has been
chronicling his personal bond with the natural environment through his black and white photography. Working with large-format cameras and long exposures, his techniques capture the detail and intricacy of Florida’s landscape.

To learn more, visit clydebutcher.com.

Do you have a photo for State of Wonder? Please email Jacki Levine at [email protected].