A specimen in Alida Fish's series, "Under the Oleander Tree."

Art professors take pride in the accomplishments of their former students and, conversely, artists frequently acknowledge a teacher who significantly influenced or inspired them. For example, photography art star Cindy Sherman credits Barbara Jo Revelle, her Buffalo State College photography instructor, with introducing her to the tenets of conceptual photography, an experience that “had a liberating effect” on Sherman in the earliest stages of her career.

That noble power of pedagogy underscores the current exhibition titled Natura at Nina Freudenheim Gallery that is on view through January 25. It consists of work by four photographers who were selected by their former professor, the celebrated photographer and Buffalo resident John Pfahl. The fact that Pfahl taught at the Rochester Institute Technology from 1968 to1976 is something of a footnote in his esteemed career, but he speaks admiringly of the work of a number of his former students, now close friends, who have gone on to establish their own successful careers (three of the four in this exhibition also teach in universities in Philadelphia and are mentoring yet another generation of young photographers). John modestly states that his “influence is not an obvious one, but rather that of passing on a tradition—a model for working as a photographer or an artist.”

He proposed the exhibition to Freudenheim in an effort to bring very deserving work, that he had followed as it developed, to a broader audience. It is a unique occasion: Only once before in the over 30-year history of the gallery has Freudenheim presented an artist-curated exhibition (several years ago photographer Ellen Cary organized a group photography exhibition). The organizational principle for this show is a formula for success and the result is a slice of the best contemporary nature photography distilled for us by one of the American masters of landscape photography.

The exhibition begins with Jeannie Pearce’s quirky, charmingly crafted portraits of birds. The process by which she creates these circle-within-a-square images (she refers to them as “digiscope captures”) is surprisingly simple. A digital camera is held close to the eyepiece of a telescope and the picture is taken, producing a circular, oculus-like image with intriguing variations of blurred edges, technically called “chromatic aberrations. The viewer becomes a bird voyeur and sometimes catches the egrets, geese, heron and sandpipers in awkward poses. This is where the humor and irony of this series becomes evident. The artist uses the animal’s idiosyncrasies and peccadilloes to her advantage, but perhaps more importantly, she brings us in close visual range to appreciate the textures on these feathered creatures and the languid surfaces of the water where they are often sited.

The black-and-white gelatin silver prints of Stuart Rome (who Pfahl affectionately describes as his protégé) depict magical, mystical worlds that make it hard to believe these spaces exist on this earth. The actual locales range from the foreign and exotic, such Cambodia and Bali, to ones much nearer, such as Tinicum and Rickett’s Glen, both in Pennsylvania. These are exquisite photographs of dense, highly layered foliage that masterfully render the simultaneously compacted and fragmented components of their environment. In Vines, Kebal Spean, Cambodia, undulating vines elegantly weave and lace among the trees and leaves. What makes these images really sing and draw us into a state of contemplation is the way the artist poetically captures the dialogue between light (sometimes as star-shaped glints of sunlight) and shadow in these idyllic scenes. Removing color from the equation heightens the elegance and, as Rome explains it, also “simplifies the chaotic imagery into a form where a new visual order emerges.” The artist throughout his travels learned to “see landscape as living patterns” and this exceptional series of prints is as good an illustration of that viewpoint as you are likely to see.

Links between photography and natural science have existed since the invention of photography in 1839. In fact, in that same year, the world’s first photographic exhibition in Birmingham, England, consisted of 56 of William Fox Talbot’s images, half of which depicted various botanical specimens. For her series titled Under the Oleander Tree, Alida Fish conjures up the spirit of that time in her dark, enigmatic images of zoological specimens and animal oddities. Inspired by a childhood home in Bermuda filled with collected objects and her memories of assembling a modern-day “Cabinet of Curiosity” within an Oleander tree’s roots, Fish has created images that pay tribute to the wonder associated with scientific discovery and documentation. The images are small (only 8x10 inches) and are tintypes, an antiquated photographic technique rarely used today that utilizes light-sensitive emulsion on metal. Fish actually updated the process substantially by utilizing digital technology to create the positive that is used to fix the final image. The “pearly rich patina” on the plates is highly effective and reinforces the otherworldly nature of the imagery. These intimate images of sea creatures and skeletal forms represent the dark side of nature in this exhibition. Their scale draws the viewer closer and invites them to engage in the act of scientific examination and inspection of these wonders of the natural world.

In stark contrast, the last artist in the exhibition, Paul Lange, celebrates the vibrant color, form and line of exotic species of plants through his larger-than-life “portraits” of flowers such as clematis, Tacca chantrieri and various orchids. The series was inspired by a commission to photograph the grounds of an estate in Rensselaer, New York, which led him to the exotic-plant-filled conservatory located there. Following a 30-year career as a fashion photographer, whose work appeared on the covers of international publications such as Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle, GQ and Elle, Lange made these intriguing floral forms his new models. He aptly describes this body of work as “winsomely anthropomorphic” portraits. The stark white background accentuates the lines and curvature of the flowers and stems and brings into sharp relief the elegant architecture of the plants. They are powerfully beautiful images. Perhaps the most enticing is Fu#2, a portrait of an ornate Paphiopedilum philippinense orchid. In this image the white segments of the flower petals become transparent against the stark white background leaving the striped patterns on the petals to appear as brush-like calligraphic marks.

John Pfahl has assembled a tightly edited, cohesive body of work by each of the artists. This compelling exhibition, a tribute to both his curatorial vision and photographic eye, is a well-conceived survey of exceptional nature-themed photography.