Stanford Lipsey brings forms together on North Campus

“Affinity of Form,” Lipsey’s exhibit in the Duderstadt Gallery, consists of a series of juxtaposed images, like a photo of five-tiered calla lilies paired with another picture of a sharp skyscraper with the same tiered structure. The 45 photographs are selections from his 2009 book of the same name.

Awash in bright color, the photographic pairs tend to crop and magnify one aspect of perspective to amplify similarities within and between nature and constructions. Lipsey does not have a “grand scheme” when he holds a camera, but the end results reflect the serenity of the environment while expressing human presence.

The photographs, produced in limited editions of 10 each and priced at $500 to $1,000, capture diverse locations throughout the world, from France to Costa Rica to California. The exhibit presents work as recent as 2010 and as early as 1979.

Although Lipsey features shots from every calendar season, he favors autumn above all. He brought his camera with him on his Ann Arbor visit to open the exhibit on Oct. 7, and was impressed with the foliage he remembers from his time as an undergrad in the ’40s.

“Every season is good, but the changing in the leaves is just wonderful,” Lipsey said. “Now that I’m back at Michigan, I love these trees, where the tips of the leaves are changing and the body is still green — I think it’s magnificent.”

Lipsey established his lifelong interest in photography and journalism as a photographer for The Michigan Daily and The Michiganensian more than 60 years ago, and those days are still remembered fondly. In 2005, he donated $3 million to renovate the Student Publications Building. The photography he did in Ann Arbor was mostly photojournalism — which he considers entirely separate from the fine art photography he has pursued since the 1970s.

“When I’m shooting, by and large what happens is I put on a whole new set of eyes, and I’m really much more observant,” he said. “When I would go cover a football game, obviously, I was shooting a football, but now when I’m out shooting, I just look for whatever is worth capturing in the moment.”

An Omaha, Nebraska native, Lipsey worked his way up to the helm of the Omaha Sun Newspapers, a chain of weekly papers, after he joined the staff in 1952. He sold the Sun to Warren Buffett in 1969, but remained at the paper through the ’70s, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for a local investigative piece. Buffett asked Lipsey to oversee the Buffalo News in New York in 1980, and he became publisher within a few years, a position he maintains to this day.

Fine art photography is “a world of its own,” apart from photojournalism and journalism, Lipsey said, but he does see the connection between his success in journalism and his success in photography.

“When I went to Buffalo, the town was having terrible economic problems, and I had to be very innovative and creative,” he said about his efforts to ensure the newspaper’s success. “I think it spills over into my photography. My photography is very innovative and creative, too.”