Out Here: Photographic Studies of the Natural World is a new and still evolving body of work. The series will include images from other landscapes and environments, but these initial images being featured in SXSE Magazine are focused upon the Southwestern landscape, where I have made many pilgrimages over the past 40 years. It is a landscape I know well, and yet still discover something new each time I return to it. From my first exposure to this other worldly realm, my spirit felt at home. I understood immediately why so many other artists, authors and musicians have come here to create, to search, and to live. This land is like no other. The vast landscape stretches beneath a boundless sky, where crimson cliffs and sunbaked mesas rise like ancient monuments—silent, powerful and enduring. They have been here for millennia. It is a land where wind and stone speak in whispers of eternity. Out Here is where I go to listen. To step beyond the edges of routine and into places where the land speaks in its own language—through wind, through light, through scent and sensation—and the persistence of time. Traveling into these natural landscapes is both a creative pursuit and a spiritual practice for me. Out Here, I am less concerned with capturing and more intent on witnessing—on being present in the moment. The camera becomes a way to honor presence—a way to slow down and see what often goes unseen. Out Here, I feel closer to something essential, something that cannot be named, but can be felt in the wide sky, the curve of the stone, the fleeting shimmer of light. This body of work reflects those quiet encounters. It is less about the grandness of the landscape and more about the intimacy of being with it. Out Here, I find a kind of return—to stillness, to wonder, and to a deeper way of seeing. It is where I seek communion, whether with the land, with something divine or with my own inner truths. Out Here the layers of identity and expectation can fall away, allowing space for humility, awe and a sense of belonging to something larger, older, and more sacred. It is a return to elemental things: sky, earth, breath. Out Here, the edges blur between earth and sky, between self and silence. Out Here the noise recedes, and the pulse of the land rises to meet you. Out Here the heart remembers how to listen. Out Here the sacred lingers in the ordinary. I come Out Here not to escape, but to return—to presence, to wonder, and to the untamed spaces—in the land and in myself.
Donna Dangott is an American photographic artist whose work is deeply rooted in a lifelong connection to the natural world. Her work merges the precision of scientific observation with the soulfulness of fine art. With a foundation in medical and biological illustration and over four decades of photographic practice, her images reflect a profound reverence for the natural world and an intuitive grasp of its spirit. She holds a BFA in photography (1988) from Austin Peay State University. Her photography—ranging from ethereal surrealism to finely rendered realism—explores themes of nature, memory, perception, and human connection. While her early work was rooted in analog processes, she now works entirely in the digital realm, creating images that are both contemporary and timeless in their sensibility. Her two newest bodies of work, Anima Naturae: Nature Spirit and Out Here: Photographic Studies of the Natural World, exemplifies her ability to distill the essence of living forms and different environments with grace and clarity, honoring nature as a sentient and sacred force.
Dangott’s work has been widely exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions across the United States in galleries and museums, as well as, featured in curated national publications and virtual platforms. Her work is held in many permanent collections—both private and public. Currently based in Texas, she travels frequently across the United States and abroad, accompanied by her husband, a biologist and fellow explorer. She is represented by Gallery 7NINE (Dallas,TX)
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