Local Roosevelt resident Douglas Hamm has become a nationally known photographer.

Mr. Hamm was selected as one of 30 photographers worldwide to be part of GUILD.com, an online art market company that is currently valued at over $100 million. The "upscale art destination" combines "ecommerce with informative content," according to a recent press release from the company.

It all began in August 1998 when Mr. Hamm went to the Roosevelt Post Office to pick up his mail and discovered an 8.5 x 11 brochure naming him as one of the 30 photographers selected from a long list of potential artists around the world.

"I have no idea how this guy (hired by GUILD.com to do the search) found me, unless he saw some of my photos in one of the galleries in Scottsdale," Doug exclaimed during a recent interview.

Doug was asked to submit 15 photographs from which 5 would be chosen for the site. The other 29 photographers were asked to do the same. Doug picked 15 proofs and slides from his collection of fine artwork and submitted them.

GUILD.com went online in March or April 1999. "Mystic Waters," "Night Watcher," and "Century Plant," which features Roosevelt Lake in the background are among the five photographs featured on the website. Each of the 30 photographs has its own page with featured work at GUILD.com.

This however, was just the beginning for Douglas Hamm. The news became even more exciting for Douglas when he received a phone call in August of this year. "Mystic Waters" had been selected from 5,000 pieces of art as the one piece used by GUILD.com for their national advertising campaign. The well-known magazine "Travel and Leisure" features a full-page color ad with "Mystic Waters" in the October 1999 and November 1999 (p 204) issues. Douglas was also recently asked for an additional 10 pieces for the website.

If you have never seen any of Douglas Hamm's work, you have been deprived of art that is quite remarkable. An image of Christ, a hawk, a wolf and an Indian warrior can be seen in "Mystic Waters." "The area around the falls is an Indian burial ground," Hamm said of the photograph taken at Yosemite.

His work can be found locally at Punkin Center Baptist Church (including a 30x40 photo of "Mystic Waters") as well as at the church's website at www.4Him.com and at Punkin Center Restaurant.

"Mystic Waters" is available in limited edition (50 only), mounted on a black box for $1500.00. A 20x24 framed and matted copy (unlimited) is available for $725.00.

For those of you who would like to see Douglas' work from the comfort of your own home, surf over to GUILD.com and fill your computer screen with some of the finest art from around the world.

GUILD.com is already very successful at selling original works onlin. Founder and CEO Toni Sikes, "has committed $4 million to an aggressive marketing campaign through fourth quarter of this year." The leadership team of GUILD.com includes Richard Marcus, former CEO of Neiman Marcus, Larry Landweber, former president of the Internet Society and current Network Research Council chair of Internet2, and the curator of the art collection, Michael Monroe, a former Curator-in-Charge of the Smithsonian's Renwick gallery.

A professional photographer for 33 years, Hamm did his apprenticeship under Ansel Adams, a well-known nature photographer.

Dear Douglas,

Recently, my wife and I were given a beautiful picture, which we understand you photographed. The picture is entitled "Turning Point," the name of our nationally syndicated radio and television program. Our colleague and friend David Bolthouse purchased the photo and had it matted and framed. It now hangs right outside my office. I walk past it many times a day when I am here and it reminds me of the most important Turning Point in my life.

I understand it represents something similar in your life. I would love to hear your story.

I trust the Lord will continue to bless you and give you a great new year.

P u n k i n   C e n t e r   B a p t i s t   C h u r c h

Douglas Hamm is a Deacon at Punkin Center Baptist Church, Tonto Basin, Arizona. His life is filled with the Holy Spirit that is portrayed in all of his work.

We have no stained glass windows in our church and Douglas presented the church with his pictures along with the scriptures for our walls. They help to bring a truly quiet time of worship and sureness of the Holy Spirit each time we enter the sanctuary. As each person gets a blessing from Douglas' work, we feel that God is well pleased.

All of Douglas' work is dedicated to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and is his ministry to people. He and his wife, Susan, use these works of art to bring each of us, as Christians, closer to God and help the unsaved to find Jesus as their Savior.

Douglas and Susan have brought to Punkin Center Baptist Church a precious gift. These gifts of art are special to each person that comes into our church and we know that they will be a great blessing to all who have the opportunity to view or own them.

Dear Mr. Hamm,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for helping us with the cover of our last chamber directory.

When I first met you, the Greater Globe-Miami Chamber was in the process of looking for an appropriate cover for our business and community directory. So many times' we had gone back to the same overly used scenery for the cover and it was getting stale and uninspired.

As you may or may not know, our community was in the formal process of trying to combine the Globe and Miami communities into one municipality. For years, turfism, prejudices, and wrong attitudes had kept the two communities apart. The time had finally come to bring them together for the good of the entire area. The moment I saw your photos, I was reminded of the need to include Christ in everything that we do. It became my hope to relay that message to the community.

The photo that was used for the cover of the Chamber Business Directory of the Roosevelt Lake Bridge and its reflection, which looked very much like the Christian fish symbol, represented so well the ideal that Christ is indeed the bridge between God and man.

It will continue to remain my goal to unite these communities and I do believe that with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

Thank you for your inspiring vision.

Sincerely yours,
Jeri Byrne
Former Executive Director
Greater Globe-Miami Chamber

Douglas Hamm has an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, and he has pictures to prove it! However, sometimes it takes a lot of planning and patience to be in that right place at the right time.

Even when we are where God wants us, many times we fail to recognize the opportunities He puts in our path. Opportunity doesn't always fall in our lap.

One probably isn't going to get a beautiful picture at Zabrinsky Point in Death Valley, Calif., as the sun skims the mountains revealing an image of the hand of God without some careful planning. Sometimes you have to be in the right place and waiting for that opportunity - that once in a lifetime opportunity.

Douglas is a Christian and a professional photographer. He says he was praying for a mission and during a revival service, the Lord revealed to him that he should use is photographs in ministry. "God gave me my talent. I used it 30 years commercially. I decided it was high time I gave it back to Him," he syas.

He hopes to fulfill a vision shared by George Denney. In the February issue of Portraits, Denney said he could almost visualize reading comforting scripture off the walls in the hospital while he was undergoing cancer treatment. Douglas, too, visualizes scripture on the walls of hospitals and waiting rooms - in the form of his inspiring photographs which include scripture verses.

In addition to medical facilities, Douglas hopes to get his pictures in places where people may not know the Lord. By doing so, he hopes his work will at least plant a seed. He has also been approached about starting a line of greeting cards, another way of planting seeds.

In his community, the Roosevelt-Tonto Basin area, his work is currently on display at Roosevelt Lake Visitor Center, Tonta Basin Public Library, Tonto Basin Ranger District, the office at Lakeview Park and his church, Punkin Center Baptist Church.

Also, his photo entitled "The Bridge" is on the front page of the current issue of the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce Business Directory. The picture is one of the bridge at Roosevelt Dam with a perfect reflection in the water. Together they form the Christian fish symbol.

On a business trip to Globe, Douglas says that the Lord directed him to the Chamber of Commerce building where director Jeri Byme said she had been praying for just the right symbol to use on the new directory. "God has told me to put Him on the cover of the Chamber magazine," she told Douglas.

The photo is a beautiful scene to promote the area. Ironically, "The Bridge" also symbolizes a bridge between Globe and Miami as the two communities consider unification. But greater still is the opportunity to witness for the Lord by the photo's message on the cover which tells that Jesus is the bridge between man and God.

"I had no reason for stopping at the Chamber of Commerce," syas Douglas. "God orchestrated the whole thing."

One can actually sense the Lord's presence in Hamm's photos. His camera lens seems to find God or God's work in everything it relays to film, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.

In fact, he has been referred to as God's photographer. "He captures it, we see it," says Denise Bridges, manager of Lakeview Park. "Douglas is truly gifted by the Lord. It's exciting to see people using their gifts."

While we all aspire to do great things, God has given us different talents. Many of us would love to capture God's creaton on film like Douglas, but obviously God doesn't need everyone to be a photographer.

"Our greatest ministry comes in quiet moments with God," said Eric Woods, pastor of Punkin Center Baptist Church. "Douglas has captured those moments...the truth of God in creation. It's a blessing."

-Shirley Rittenbach, a free-lance writer living in Globe, is a member of Trinity Baptist Chruch.

N o r t h e a s t   V a l l e y A r t i s t   o f   t h e   M o n t h D o u g l a s   H a m m Douglas Hamm says he works for a "great boss." He works for God. Hamm is a photographic artist. His career has spanned three decades. Lately, though, his images can be described as divine. He is now pairing some of his fine art photographs with Scripture as part of his mission to spread God's word.

It's photos by Hamm; captions by God. The series of photographs and scriptures is called "Spiritual Images."

Some might have argued that Hamm's photographs have always had a spiritual influence. His award-winning scenic photographs have been seen worldwide. Now with Scripture paired to his images, there's no doubt where Hamm's heart is.

As a Born Again Christian, Hamm considers it his responsibility to spread God's message. That's the least he can do, he said, because God gave him his photography talents to begin with. "I'm blessed," he said. "I've been given a gift to be able to create photos of the world He created." He said he tries not to be an over-the-top preacher. Mostly, he lets the images and Bible verses do the talking.

Yet he's never shy about sharing his beliefs. "When I'm out there with this work, I don't care who I talk to about it," he said. "They can either accept it or reject it. Many people are really enjoying the fact that I'm stepping out for Christ."

Talking salvation isn't exactly chitchat, but Hamm keeps a sense of humor about it, too. The Payson Roundup recently interviewed Hamm. When the article, by Mike Burkett, appeared, the headline proclaimed Hamm as "God's Photographer. "After the story published, a boy sacking Hamm's groceries at a Payson store recognized him from the story. "He asked me, "Are you are really God's photographer? Hamm said Looking the boy square in the eyes, and with a deadpan face, Hamm replied, "Yes. Yes I am."

Then he boomed in laughter, his face animated and his eyes twinkling. The photographer grew more serious, though, when talking about the potential for Spiritual Images. The series includes nine photographs now and more are under production.

Hamm said the photographs, each professionally mounted and printed with the Scripture message, are perfect as memorials, or for churches or hospitals. "I know if I were dying of cancer in some hospital bed and I saw the 'Mighty Hand' (one of his images), I'd be instantly at peace," he said. Mayo Clinic agreed with the idea and is planning to hang Hamm's work. Hamm, a former Fountain Hills resident now living a stone's throw from Roosevelt Lake, often photographs his surroundings.

"1 previsualize everything I do," he said. He'll spend hours at a site looking and waiting; his trained eye always searching for the right light and angle. Judging from his photographs, he almost always gets it right. "There's a feeling you get when you hit that shutter. You feel it. It's unbelievable," he said.

His studio can be reached at (928) 467-2866.

From "Roundup Weekly" Tonto Basin, Arizona

That explains a lot.

For starters, it explains why Taylor's tiny congregation at Punkin Center Baptist Church has balooned from 12 members to 102 in just two years.

It explains why, in that same period of time, the church grew out of a tiny house trailer into a "downtown" bar, and from the bar, to its very own church on its very own land.

It explains why this tiny little church in this tiny little town can build its own Web page to spread the Gospel, and within one year watch the International response grow to 3,000 hits per day.

Hamm had spent four and a half years as an aerial photographer during his stint with the U.S. Navy in the early 1960's. That was followed by advertising and commercial work, as well as periods of study and apprenticeship under the legendary likes of Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Al Weber, Arnold Newman, Dora Bothwell and Ralph Putzker.

Their influence - and that of such personal heroes as Man Ray - has helped transformed Hamm into something of an icon himself. He has been named one of the top 30 photographers in the nation by the highly respected fine art Web site, www.guild.com, which backs up its assessment by selling some of Hamm's work online and through its published catalogs.

Other samples of Hamm's photography are on permanent display at the Burpee Art Museum in Rockford, IL, and in Word Picture Productions collection in New Orleans, LA. He is also represented in dozens of prestigious art galleries which span the country from Santa Barbara, CA, to Portland, Maine.

"My fine art work is inspired by the Holy Spirit," Hamm says - although the explanation is hardly necessary once you've seen his creative output.

His most famous photograph, titled "Mystic Waters," is so divinely touched that California news affiliate NBC television did a story on its "glimpse of the Lord on film."

Although the subject of this untouched and unmanipulated photograph is a waterfall in California's Yosemite National Park, other images - including a hawk, a wolf and a Christ-like profile - seem to magically rise from the rushing waters.

But then, Hamm's camera lens seems to find God or God's work in everything it relays on film. Sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.

One photograph, titled "Turning Point," was - in Hamm's viewfinder - a fairly straightforward image of a distant bend in a road above Roosevelt Lake. But when transferred to photographic paper, the bend was suddenly illuminated by a heavenly shaft of light.

"It was entirely an accident, and very often that's the only explanation for great photographs," Hamm says of the result, which was recently selected to grace the back cover of a book titled, unsurprisingly, "Bend in the Road."

Although the goal of Hamm's work has always been to move people closer to Christ, he is now hoping that it will also move them closer to Punkin Center Baptist Church.

To that end, he has donated prints from his 1083 "Blue Skies Portfolio" - five eerily beautiful aerial images illustrating the effects of pollution on nature - to the church to help raise money for its youth center building fund.

"This man," says Pastor Taylor, "has more of the Holy Spirit in him than any man I've ever met. And you can see that in his pictures. We have a wonderful congregation here. But when it comes to the spiritual backbone of this church Douglas is number one."

Waiting for the miracle

Thanks to the Internet, Hamm's "Blue Skies Portfolio" is now available to potential donors all over the world at www.spiritualimages.com.

"We're not in the picture-selling business, don't misunderstand me," Taylor says. "We don't sell stuff; when God directs somebody to give us money, then we just give them one of these as a remembrance and a thank you."

But the work of his congregation's most famous member isn't the only thing Pastor Taylor is using to garner interest in the youth center in general and the Punkin Center Baptist Church in specific.

On the weekend of September 15 through 17, the church will sponsor a "Cowboy Camp Meeting" - described by Taylor as a festival of "cooking, preaching, singing, and people coming from everywhere to spread Jesus' word." Professional bull rider Cody Custer will be a speaker, he says. "We're planning the biggest event that's ever been in Tonto Basin."

The purpose of the event is not to raise money, Taylor stresses. However...

"If anyone walks through our church, sees Doug's work on the walls and becomes inspired to help out with our youth center building," he says with a grin, "well, that's God, doing his job. No question about it."