The Ripple Effect

June 27, 2007

The glory of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore is revealed with maximum impact at the new Ripple Effect Studio and Gallery in the Village of Empire.
The gallery provides a summer worksite and exhibit space for acclaimed large format photogra-pher Jeff Ripple. A resident of Naples, Florida, the photographer has exhibited in more than a dozen solo and group museum exhibits, won numerous awards nationwide, and has authored nine books of natural history.
Ripple fell in love with Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Leelanau Peninsula after being married last year on Good Harbor Beach and spending the summer in the Empire area with his new wife, Pam Lincoln. The couple lived during the summer in a 23-foot travel trailer with their dog, Bear, outside Lincoln’s barn. “I was and remain constantly surprised and inspired by the drama of the skies over the lake and the gentle, rolling hills,” says Ripple. “This studio will allow me to produce new work with little or no interlude between exposing the film and making a print for exhibit.”
He spent the better part of five months scouring the national lakeshore for inspirational images and has opened the gallery with eight pieces from his series, “Wild Sleeping Bear,” in addition to images from his native Florida, Colorado, the Appalachians, and the Caribbean. He will unveil an additional four to six pieces from “Wild Sleeping Bear” within the next couple months, in addition to new oil and acrylic paintings inspired by the Leelanau County landscape, most of them painted on location en plein aire.
Ripple Effect Studio and Gallery is, as its name implies, the photographer’s summer working studio and a gallery showplace for his photographs, which range in size from a modest 11x14 inches to more than 38x60. The images reflect the artist’s devotion to protecting the natural environment, his fascination with the ephemeral play of light on textures and forms in the landscape, and his reverence for wild places. They are entirely wild landscapes, with little or no evidence of people or civilization. Ripple works in both color and black & white and is self-trained in large format photography and printmaking.

Ripple Effect Studio and Gallery is located at 10085 West Front Street in Empire and is open through the end of September, seven days a week and by appointment.