Jul 12, 2009 4 min read

Fritz Kinzel is fascinated by water moving in rivers and mountain streams, and he shares his enthusiasm with others through photographs he has been taking for the past 25 years. Local residents now can observe Kinzel’s work in a show called “Waterscapes” that runs through Aug. 21 at the Fallingwater exhibition space in the visitor’s center at Fallingwater in Mill Run. The show focuses on Meadow Run, a stream that runs through Ohiopyle State Park and into the Youghiogheny River. “The color of the underwater rocks and lichens, the exciting forms of different flowers and the amazing spectral light reflections at Meadow Run Cascades and lower rapids became my photographic nirvana,” Kinzel, a resident of Canaan, N.Y., explained in a statement he wrote for the show. “I had photographed at many Pennsylvania streams but Meadow Run in Ohiopyle seemed to have it all.”

Justin Gunther, curator of buildings and collections at Fallingwater, pointed out how Kinzel’s photographs show the way the water in Meadow Run reflects the different colors in the rock as well as the trees and algae.

“They have more depth than you would think. He really slows down the shutter speed so they have a painting quality. This one,” he said, pointing to a piece called “Hills and Troughs,” “looks like brush strokes. It almost looks like a painting.”

Gunther noted how “Hills and Troughs” looks like a topographic map, while “Whimsy in the Vortex” captures the way the water flows over the rocks and “Curvilinear Flows” shows the colors in the rocks and water.

About 150 visitors a day pass through the exhibition space to view Kinzel’s photographs and they like what they see.

Annabelle Thurlow of Bel Air, Md., a former art teacher, said, “It’s not what you would think of a photograph. It comes across as a painting. It’s very unique.”

Ginny Walton of Frostburg, Md., particularly liked “Whimsy in the Vortex” and said of the photographs, “I feel so refreshed. You could plunge right in there.”

Kinzel is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who formerly worked at Connemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown and continues to visit the area. He began photographing water from a kayak on rivers and then moving-water moments from the sides of streams.

In another statement for the press, Kinzel said, “With the use of a telephoto lens and a short shutter speed, it was possible to get wonderful flowing forms, rock and moss colors enhanced by water covering, and spectral colors from reflected sunlight that produced unusually painterly photographs. Meadow Run near Fallingwater became a prime site for interesting flows and colors. The works also came to metaphorically reflect the mental processes seen in healthy development, which added deeper meaning to the work. The photography aspires to be a celebration of man’s harmony with nature inspired by this beautiful area of America.”

Gunther said that Kinzel’s photographs are a perfect fit for Fallingwater because a stream is so important to the legendary house’s architecture and Kinzel pulls from a stream for his art.

There are 13 large pieces hanging in the exhibition space with intriguing names such as “Blue Rapids,” “Dark Elegance,” “Enveloping Flows,” “Feathery Flow” and “Wavy Plateau.” All of these pieces are for sale and several have already been sold.

An additional 28 smaller pieces are available for sale in the museum store with such titles as “Clouds in the Valley,” “Emergence from the Foam,” “From the Many One” and “Standing Water.”

Fallingwater continues to offer its shows in the exhibition space free to the public. Anyone wishing to see “Waterscapes” should tell the staff at the entrance gate for admission.

Information on purchasing Kinzel’s work is available at the museum store. The show is available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, except Wednesdays. For more information, visit online at www.fallingwater.org.