Doug Hjelmstad was born (1957) and raised in Colorado Springs, CO.  He went to college in Gunnison, CO and upon graduating in 1982, he moved to Conway, NH where he lived and worked for almost 30 years.  After attending seminary in Philadelphia, Doug became an ordained, ‘second-career’ Lutheran pastor and relocated to SW Nebraska in 2014.  Doug holds an MDiv from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (’14) and an MA from the Bangor Theological Seminary (’09).  He also holds a BA in biology from Western State College of Colorado (’82).

Doug is a ‘self-learning’ photographer with no formal education in art or photography and enjoys pursuing photography both as hobby and spiritual practice.   The fertile but often harsh prairie landscape and rural / small town culture has been a primary focus of his photography. Doug is mostly inclined toward simplicity in design and composition; themes of isolation, solitude, stillness, and loss figure prominently in his images.  He is inspired by the photographic work of, among others, Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Adams, Vivian Maier, Nadav Kander and the painters Edward Hopper and Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

To this point, Doug has worked mostly in a fairly close radius from his home, returning to some locations and subjects several times in different seasons or different times of day.  Doug is an intuitive photographer, wary of clichés in his images (Thanks, Kathleen!), strives to see ‘the mysterious in the familiar’ and stay alert to newness and beauty in the mundane and commonplace.