Dena Phaff Haas is a bright and talented lady here in Battle Creek who has brought joy to hundreds of people through her photographs.
Dena was born in the Netherlands, but her family came here when she was just two years old. Her father was a photographer, so though she studied all kinds of art at Calvin College, she eventually came to emphasize photography and moved into her dad’s business about 25 years ago. She wisely opened a studio right next to her house, so that she could be close to her children, even while working.
I met Dena quite a few years ago when she started taking special photographs of two members of the Battle Creek Symphony for each concert. The very large professional pictures have always been displayed in the hall outside the auditorium where the orchestra plays, and mine was one of the pictures. I especially liked that picture, bought it from the orchestra and still have it hanging in my music room at home.
Over the years Dena has also taken literally thousands of pictures of babies, young children, high school seniors, brides and grooms, families and business people.
You can go see 15 of her wonderful pictures on display at the Brownstone Restaurant in downtown Battle Creek. The owner admired her work and requested special pictures for his doorway and inside walls. If you’ve already been there, you’ve no doubt seen some, for three of them have been hanging there for over five years.
Even if you can’t go to Brownstone, you can see a number of her wonderful photographs on line by simply going to http://www.phaffstudio.com/.
Dena sometimes presents inspiring quotes from the people that are on display. One lady, for example, said, “I've discovered that I must be flexible and open to new ideas, yet remain true to the core of who I am... My physical and mental strength grows by being stretched to the limits of my endurance."
Through all of the years of full-time photographing, Dena says that she has been touched when people have come back to her to say how precious her pictures have become for them. This has been especially true when family members have died. As she put it very touchingly, “Photographs in a sense stop time, for it only takes a part of a second to freeze moments forever.”
Dena introduced me to the word “Chiaroscuro,” which describes artwork that emphasizes illumination and shadows. Her photos just outside Brownstone are more emotionally dark, whereas the pictures inside are more light and positive. These contrasts, she believes, describe human life for us all, for we have both negative and positive, dark and light events in our lives, and both help us to develop our deep understanding, tolerance and, in most cases, love of of life.
As she put it, "So much of what I do in both my art and photography is devoted to seeing and analyzing light and shadow. To me this is also a metaphor for my life's journey. My belief in and worship of the God of light is an important part of who I am."
Battle Creek artist Andrew Freemire admires Dena tremendously and urged me to write this column. As he put it, “There are photographers, and then there are photographers. As in all disciplines, there are those that have the academics and do fine, but then there are those that have the academic, the innate talent coupled with genuine passion. Dena has the later blend, and the results are so evocative/comfortable/inspiring."
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