Clement In Dayton Saturday

DAYTON - Spring time in the Tucannon Valley. The hills around Dixie at twilight. A snowbound Dayton barn. The Tri Cities in the grip of an electrical storm, its lightning bolts splitting the dark night from sky to street scape.

Beauty and drama is what admirers of John Clement's photography have come to expect from him.

Now these admirers and those who enjoy awardwinning regional interpretive photography can find it two ways: During this Saturday's artist reception at the Wenaha Gallery in Dayton and in Clement's new book "Northwest Drylands Seasons," which he will sign for buyers 11 am - 3 pm.

"This guy is good," gallery manager Christine Broughton said. "His photography captures the splendor of the Northwest with its great variety of landscapes throughout the season."

Clement began his career in photography in the 1970s. Since then, he has received 55 regional, national and international awards for pictorial and commercial work. In 1989, four of his photographs were accepted into the Washington State University Museum of Art.

Clement, who lives in Richland, considers it his mission to share the wonders of creation through photography. Red Dawn, one of his works, was named one of the top photographs in the United States by the Professional Photographers of America, an organization with 22,000 members, and hung in a permanent collection of the International Photography Hall Of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Northwest Drylands Seasons is his third book, following earlier publications of Palouse Country: A Land And Its People and The Wenatchee Valley And Its First People.

Alex McGregor, owner of the McGregor Co and one of Clement's fans, said Northwest Drylands Seasons "conveys a sense of the land and those who have settled it."

For more information, call the Wenaha Gallery at 509-382-2124.