AUGUSTA, GA - Photographer Dwain Shaw considers his work fine art. And he’d be happy to argue the point with any painter.

“What they have to understand is I have to have all of the talent they have, plus the technical skills to turn a photograph into art,” Shaw said. “Histograms, light levels, white balance — so many additional things that are the tools of making a fine art image.”

Shaw, who studied art at the University of Georgia, began his artistic life with the brush.

“The problem, truthfully, with being an artist was I couldn’t get the vision in my head to come out of my hand.”

But when he picked up the camera, he found the tool that changed his artistic path. Two signs that other artists recognize him as one of their own: Shaw is president of the Columbia County Arts Council and vice president of the Columbia County Artists Guild.

In addition, he’s one of the founding committee members of the Augusta Photography Festival and is currently one of the people planning the 2010 festival, which will be held June 11-19 of next year.

An art show opening on First Friday, July 3, at the Metro Spirit Gallery, 700 Broad St., will feature Shaw’s prints as a kickoff of the committee’s efforts to create the second Augusta Photography Festival. Shaw’s exhibit titled “Earth, Sea and Sky” is a collection of nature photos based on poet Rod McKuen’s trilogy.

In addition to Shaw’s work, the gallery will also feature photos from students at Augusta
Preparatory Day School. The photos are from a photography contest at the school this year and represent the Augusta Photography Festival’s continuing commitment to developing young artists.

Also on First Friday, Daniel Foreman, an Augusta metal sculptor, will have tables, tulip lamps and other works on display in front of the Metro Spirit offices on Broad Street.

Shaw, originally from Bainbridge in the southwestern corner of Georgia, took up
photography in college. However, his artistic career went on a 24-year detour through the military, where he worked in communications and technology.

He did have creative projects, however. He created a tactical switchboard that could be taken anywhere because it looked like a trash can. He also was asked by the State Department to work on a multinational force rebuilding telecommunications in the Sinai Peninsula. He wrapped up his military career with postings at the Pentagon and at Fort Gordon, where he served as chief information officer.

After retiring in 1992, Shaw joined the Medical College of Georgia. He now works for MCG Health as Director of Information Services. In the buildup to Y2K, Shaw appeared on World News Tonight and other national shows as an expert on managing critical computerized systems in healthcare during the transition to a new millennium.

That’s about the time he seriously renewed his photography. With a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s degree in technology, he found his brain well suited to deal with the new world of digital photography.

After training with some of the world’s top nature photographers, including George Lepp and Tom Bol, Shaw now teaches photography. Shaw leads two workshops in the Smoky Mountains each year, and instructs in Columbia County through the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art.

Shaw won a national award for his photography in 2004 and has published one book with a group of photographers, “Friends at F8.” You can see his work on the Web at borrowed-images.com.

Photography of Dwain Shaw
plus photos by Augusta Prep students
and metal sculpture by Daniel Foreman
Metro Spirit Gallery
700 Broad St.
First Friday, July 3
6-9 p.m.