Gregg Wilensky sees nature through a different lens

“Photoshop” has become a verb for Gregg Wilensky, a senior principal scientist at Adobe, the Bay Area-based computer software company where he’s worked for the last 18 years.

[...] much so that the theoretical physicist began to regularly flip the switch from his day job developing features of the editing software to image-making as an artist using Photoshop.

Photographs at the Boundaries of Nature at the Dryansky Gallery, flicker between the representational and abstract, while picturing the natural world.

Showcased are wildflowers transformed into iridescent mustard splatters in “Yellow, Cowell Ranch,” while a tangle of branches turns icily metallic and knifelike in “Morning Brush, Big Sur.”

Jilian Adi Monribot, Dryansky’s co-director and curator, says she and gallery owner and director Janel Dryan chose to give Wilensky his first S.F. solo show because “we believe digital fine art photography is going through unprecedented growth and that Gregg Wilensky is an important and relevant voice in 21st century photography.”

[...] the present concerns of the scientist, who studied with the Nobel Prize winner Julian Schwinger, remain intertwined with his past.

For a lot of commercial photography, you try to get a beautiful image — you want the edges nice and clean and to get rid of noise.