By Miles Hilton
Born and raised in Holland, Bernadette van der Vliet experienced “quite a culture shock” when her husband’s job took them to the United States. Unable to get a job in her field without re-certifying, van der Vliet took community college courses in graphic design and began volunteering her skills to non-profits and educational institutions, eventually becoming a freelance graphic designer.
When she moved to Lakewood, NY in 2015, she continued attracting clients. At the same time, being in the Jamestown area gave her the resources and support to rekindle an old passion; photography.
Van der Vliet says she started practicing photography “very young”, but took a hiatus from the art form for many years as she pursued social work and graphic design. In Jamestown, however, she became a member of the Chautauqua County Camera Club and says “I got inspiration. I met some people who were really into bird photography, and I really fell in love with” it.
Jamestown has a rich legacy of visual arts that take inspiration from birds. Roger Tory Peterson was famously born and raised in the area, and returned to it in his later years, contributing much to the early days of the Audubon Community Nature Center. The camera club van der Vliet joined had it’s meetings at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, so the photographer had no shortage of support and inspiration for her new passion.
Van der Vliet fell in love with photographing “little dinosaurs”, especially when they looked “strange, or weird, or funny,” and flourished with the support of the camera club. “Photography is also a way to escape”, she says, “you literally have a different perspective.” While she remains, at heart, a bird photographer, she has recently branched into abstract and black-and-white photography, and portraiture.
“The world can be a beautiful place,” she maintains, “and that is what I want to capture in my photographs.”
Several of her photographs have won national awards, including first place in the 2023 Click Conference. While van der Vliet left the Jamestown area in 2020, her artistic evolution speaks to the rich landscape of arts in Chautauqua County, and the many ways that organizations, groups, and individuals nurture each other’s artistic passions.
Van der Vliets photography can be found at bmtphotos.com, and can be purchased at several online photography retailers linked from her website.