David Wetzel has enjoyed photographing objects in nature on an amateur level for some time. He did receive brief formal training in film photography at an intensive weeklong summer enrichment program in 1996, between 6th and 7th grade, a period of time when much of his work was heavily influenced by Soundgarden’s seminal work Down On The Upside and not playing football. He remembers having taken a picture during that time of a traffic sign that read “Danger”, later strategically cropping out the “D”, and being pretty happy with it. Recent inspiration has drifted, drawing much from the serene, if slightly more subtle, land and skyscapes provided by the natural surroundings in the sprawling and sometimes pretermitted Midwest. He prefers to shoot digitally and is aided by occasional advice he receives from his sister-in-law Jennifer Wetzel and his esteemed Seattle photographer friend Nunya Arat.

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Issue 8, December 2012, Clouds and Fires