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Melega Museum selects Salitrik as Artist of the Pike

3 min read

BROWNSVILLE – The Frank L. Melega Art Museum in Brownsville selected photographer Daniel R. Salitrik as the 2006 Artist of the Pike A meet the artist reception will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 20. The public is invited. A free lecture by Daniel R. Salitrik titled “Techniques of Digital Photography” will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 21. The event is free to the public.

The exhibition is open from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 21. The museum is also open by appointment by calling 724-785-9331.

Salitrik’s exhibition can be seen at the museum located in the historic Flatiron Building, 69 Market St., Brownsville.

“I have been taking photographs for about 40 years so I guess this makes me a photographer,” Salitrik said.

The great volume of work has prompted a first for the Frank L. Melega Art Museum, two exhibitions by the same artist.

“It is really one exhibition, the Artist of the Pike, separated into two different installations,” said curator Patrick Daugherty.

The first installation will focus on the people of the National Road. The second installation of Salitrik’s photographs will reflect the photographer’s personal and artistic vision.

“People of the Pike” opens May 20th in conjunction with the National Road Festival and runs to July 9. The second part titled “Thirty Years of Light and Shadow: A Photographic Retrospective” opens Saturday, July 10, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 3.

Salitrik is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology in Photographic Illustration, a member of American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and a Gallery Member, Silver Eye Gallery, Pittsburgh. A selection of his photographs can be viewed on the Internet at foliolights.com.

“The bulk of my work as a photographer is in black and white silver images,” Salitrik said. “I have slowly transitioned to the digital image which also caused me to explore the color digital image.”

His style has many influences but it has evolved from pre-WWII documentary photography.

While working with the museum’s curator, Salitrik was invited to be the 2006 Artist of the Pike. In this venture, Salitrik was asked to try to document “life and times along Route 40.”

In the past Artist of the Pike exhibitions, much of the focus has been on the sites and historic buildings along the National Road.

“I don’t know of any other living photographer who has created such an extensive documentation of southwestern Pennsylvania,” Daughtery said. “Dan has the eye of an artist and the perspective of a historian.

“In this exhibit you will see images of the people, the places they work and places they gather and just have good times,” Daugherty said.

It is important to note that Salitrik does not crop his images.

“I shoot full frame, print full frame and let the viewfinder be the boundary of my vision,” he said.

Salitrik has described the work effort for an exhibition of this size as follows: 12,000 miles driven, many cups of coffee, many more handshakes, 6,000 images, two ink jet printers, 10 sets of color ink cartridges and 1,000 prints

The result is an inspired exhibition of 32 incredible images – matted, framed and displayed for all to view.

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