Title: Carrières du Lumières near Les Baux - Provence, France

Artist: W. Randolph Chitwood, Jr. M.D.

Date: 2019

Medium: photographic print on canvas

Dimensions: 17 1/2" x 24"

Carrières du Lumières is translated "Quarries of Light." Near Les Baux, the first bauxite (aluminum) mines were created (1822). To superb music, paintings by Vincent Van Gogh were projected onto the 30-meter-high snow-white cavernous bauxite quarry walls in total darkness. This image of Van Gogh self-portraits was made using a very high-speed imaging technique.

"For 35 years I've been a cardiac surgeon with a passion for photography. My love of photography spans more than 50 years when as a child my father, a country general practitioner, and I built a darkroom - and the rest became history. The miracle of fine art silver gelatin printing black and white photographs became a nascent passion. During my college years, photojournalism for newspapers in Virginia served as my creative outlet. Then, I wanted to become a National Geographic Photographer. Before medical school, I worked briefly for the DuPont Company where I had the opportunity to learn to print color images from some fantastic and competitive photographers. There, I learned the fine art of salon printing.

"As I went on to attend medical school at the University of Virginia and in the years after, when I was in surgical residency at Duke University, my opportunities to enjoy photography became limited but remained dormant. The renaissance occurred with a photo trek to Tibet in 1999. From that time forward, as I traveled the world speaking on robotic cardiac surgery, I began to take 'photo day' side trips. My love of this amazing art reemerged. It was then that I sought out George deWolfe, an internationally known fine art photographer, who taught me to print my work digitally. My wife, Tammy, and I immensely enjoyed our trips to Africa, where I captured the wonderful people and the wildlife through photography. For over 50 years, she was my inspiration for living, thinking, working, and loving."

www. photographybychitwood.com; [email protected]