Snow Lines

Minimal,Uncluttered and Intimate

By Deena Dolan | Photography by Andrew Mielzynski

Photography has truly opened Andrew Mielzynski’s eyes to seeing in a different way. He searches for balance, simplicity, small details, and light, whether he has a camera in hand or not he has an appreciation for scenes that many non-photographers would not value or admire.

IS PHOTOGRAPHY ART? Thanks to social media, everyone today is a photographer and hundreds claim the moniker ‘fine art photographer’. In Andrew Mielzynski’s opinion, there is but a handful of people who can legitimately lay claim to that description but, he states emphatically, “I believe certain photography is a beautiful form of art.”

Andrew’s photographic journey began when he was 12 at his family cottage on the shores of Georgian Bay. Andrew’s mother used her simple, little camera constantly and Andrew covetously holds on to boxes of her stunning photos, particularly her sunsets. “We had spectacular sunsets and the light that reflected off the clear fresh waters was magical.” When he was 12 years old, a good friend of his parents came for the weekend and brought his film camera. “After some instruction, he encouraged me to make some photographs. I made three exposures. Two weeks later, he showed up with three prints; one of a pair of flying ducks, one of a frog and one, of course, of one of our fabulous sunsets. I still have those prints all these years later. The images were all soft and blurry, but when I saw them, I felt very proud and accomplished. I was hooked.”

Today, every 12 year old has a camera – on their phone of course. But it wasn’t until Andrew graduated from dental school, that he acquired his first. He was 27 and was about to be married. Their honeymoon destination was Hawaii and Andrew knew they would want photos, so, on the afternoon of the rehearsal, he went shopping. He arrived back late but thankfully had his first Nikon and a couple of lenses. Luckily, he’d known what to choose thanks to a close friend who had explained the ‘exposure triangle’: the relationship between three key camera settings—aperture, shutter speed, and ISO—that determine the overall brightness of a photograph. Early on, he was intrigued with capturing small natural scenes, falling in love with intimate landscapes. “I look for minimalism–simple uncluttered compositions and small intimate scenes”, explains Andrew. “I try not to do too much in my post processing and generally stay away from the saturation slider.”

Andrew Mielzynski was awarded the 2024 International Landscape Photographer of the Year title for a portfolio that included Winter Elm in Snow Storm, photographed in Meaford.

Andrew has copious boxes of slides that he made during his early years using Nikon film cameras, with manual focus lenses. “Living in Ontario, we have no mountains, no dunes, no deserts, no grand landscapes. You have to train your eye to find small scenes and vignettes.”

While living and practicing dentistry in Brampton, Andrew and his then wife, Heather, had two daughters, Jenna and Erin. From young ages, both girls showed intense athletic prowess and became seriously involved in high-performance, competitive sports. Andrew was in attendance at various tournaments and events as much as possible and naturally, his camera was always snapping. Jenna enjoyed a standout career in waterskiing. Among her many accomplishments, she was the individual national champion at the 2007 NCWSA National Championship and was twice named the Rollins College Female Athlete of the Year. Erin’s passion became focused on alpine skiing. In 2012, she won the World Cup slalom race in Ofterschwang, Germany and she competed in four Winter Olympics and five World Championships. While standing on race courses with his camera, Andrew’s athlete photos earned him quite a reputation. Ultimately he was approached by Alpine Canada to photograph the Canadian National Alpine Championships and was asked if they could use his photos from World Cup Races on their website. It involved a crazy amount of hours and very little remuneration but he absolutely loved being there. He also made some wonderful lasting friendships along the way.

Dentistry requires excessive twisting and bending, often resulting in severe spine pain — a common occupational hazard in dentistry due to prolonged static postures, repetitive movements, and poor ergonomics — physically it’s tough. “Eventually my spine and disks got all messed up — I was having a lot of serious pain.” He was also experiencing pain in normal everyday activities and finally, 13 years ago he was forced to close his practice. With additional time and opportunities he began to seriously explore street photography at home in Toronto. Many hours were devoted to the busy streets of this large, metropolitan city looking for unique scenes to capture on film. “I love to slow down, observe and discover small, intimate scenes. Photography has given me a tremendous amount of joy throughout my life, especially the ability to capture moments in time inspired by the natural world.”

Heathcote Berries

A passionate and dedicated self-taught photographer, Andrew harbours a deep connection to the natural environment and a love for capturing its magnificence, splendour and glory. He has always enjoyed spending time in nature. “Photography has been a gift that has enabled me to see and appreciate things that would not have been noticed otherwise.”

Citing influences such as Eliot Porter, Shinzo Maeda, Charles Cramer, Freeman Patterson, William Neill, Alex Noriega, Richard Martin, Bruce Percy, Jennifer Renwick and Eric Bennett, Andrew has developed a style and direction that embodies a straightforward approach which results in images that others simply don’t see. “I look for minimalism – simple, uncluttered compositions and small intimate scenes”, explains Andrew. “I try not to do too much in my post processing and generally stay away from the saturation slider.”

In 2023, Andrew entered the NLPA (Natural Landscape Photography Awards) after urging and encouragement from a close friend, Larry Monczka. He didn’t win anything, but one of the organizers, Tim Parkin, chose five of his favourite images that didn’t win and included them in the 2023 book that they produce. “One of the images was mine. The book is like a piece of art in and of itself. It is a beautifully produced, hardcover publication that includes incredible landscape artistry with some great essays.” He also entered the ILPOTY (International Landscape Photographer of the Year) contest and was named runner-up. The following year in 2024, Andrew was overwhelmed, amazed, excited and deeply honoured to win the NLPA Photographer of the year award. This competition prioritizes the “integrity of the subject” and eschews deceptive digital editing techniques and artificial intelligence announced its winners. It was set up by four landscape photographers — Tim Parkin, Matt Payne, Alex Nail, and Rajesh Jyothiswaran — to “promote the best landscape and nature photography by digital and film photographers who value realism and authenticity in their work.”

The competition rules are designed to stamp out images that are misrepresentative of reality. For example, compositing different images together; removing elements from a photo; distorting objects in the photo; multiple exposures, are all banned from the competition. The organizers check the original RAW files of the finalist for compliance.

His winning entry, ‘Winter Cottonwoods’ has an interesting story: When Covid hit, Andrew put down his camera for a bit, but then decided to go downtown during a fierce snowstorm in order to do some street photography. “I was shocked when I got to the heart of the city. Storefronts were boarded up and there was no one in sight. The scene looked post-apocalyptic. I decided to go home, but stopped in at Cherry Beach. I ran across this scene, which seemed very chaotic with many interwoven trees. I loved how the snow, driven by the high winds, got embedded in the bark of the tree trunks. I took a few frames, trying to simplify the scene in front of me and settled on this one, loving the tones, the depth and the minimalism.”

It was extremely satisfying for Andrew that the NLPA contest and the ILPOTY contests were both judged on a portfolio of images and not just a single photograph. “I found it to be very gratifying to win on a body of work, after working hard to create an output of photographs that I could be proud of. In my opinion, being judged on a portfolio shows consistency and provides a more reliable and accurate assessment of one’s work as a whole. Many of the photographs that were included in my submissions were taken close to home and I’m a firm believer in the adage that if you can’t produce good work at home, then you won’t be able to produce good work while you’re away.”

Pond Reflections

Thornbury is now Andrew’s permanent home and his camera accompanies him wherever he wanders. “Living here has opened me up to a treasure chest of intimate landscape photography. There are rivers, streams, rapids, hills, trees, woodlands, marshes and ponds.” The Beaver River has a spot that Andrew repeatedly returns to: Clendenan Dam. “The rapids and reflections here are truly fabulous and present a wealth of photographic opportunity if one is willing to slow down and take the time to observe.”

Today Andrew uses a Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera with EF 16-35mm f4, RF 24-105mm, EF 70-200mm, f2.8 and EF 100-400mm, f4.5-5.6 L IS USM lenses. On his computer, he uses Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz and Helicon Focus. “All the companies manufacture incredible products that just get better and better. Today’s mirrorless bodies are just fabulous. I can see my histogram in the viewfinder while I’m shooting and make adjustments before I actually press the shutter. I use the histogram ALL the time, not only while shooting, but also while I’m processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. Keeping a careful eye on the histogram allows me to make sure that I’m not over or under exposing the image, (unless I want to).”

Andrew eagerly awaits winter and the minimalism associated with it. “Snow covers up a lot of debris and messiness and I love how the storms associated with winter can obliterate background distractions.” One major ambition he has is to start printing his own work. He is eager to learn about different papers, settings and intricacies of the process. He also hopes to establish a website. Currently, you can find him on Facebook and Instagram @andrewmielzynski. E

Fireman’s Park