Seeing the inherent beauty in ordinary objects is an acquired skill, and Jim Witmer is a pro in this area. The award-winning photojournalist likes to work on personal creative outlets when he is not capturing images for the Dayton Daily News.

Witmer is showing 14 recent studio still lifes and landscapes at the Art Vault Gallery in Troy. They are, for the most part, bereft of color and quietly contemplative.

“My roots are in black-and-white film and silver-based photography, so I have taken digital photography back in time in a way,” Witmer said.

The depth, tonality and abstraction inherent within black-and-white photography combined with a timeless sense of elegance is a theme consistent in his personal work for four decades. “Ginko Leaves” is one of the still lifes he is presenting; he found his subject matter right outside the door of the gallery. The light-play and arrangement lends a lyrical quality to the image.

“Magnolia” shows two mauve buds on the verge of erupting nestled in dark green leaves. The light emphasizes the fluid waves of the leaves’ edges.

His work has been described as “using the simplicity of light and form … to create images that are poetic, evocative and enduring.”

“Willows” was taken from an ‘inside’ the leaves perspective. “Adams Street Bridge” was shot on film; the bridge lit by hazy spheres of light beckon a couple under an umbrella.

“My inspiration comes from the historic black-and-white work of Brett Weston, Irving Penn, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Andre Kertez,” said Witmer, who uses gallery-quality archival media: museum rag papers, glicee inks, canvas, glass and fine metals.

Witmer earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ohio University. He has been named Ohio Photographer of the Year five times, and Regional Photographer of the Year (including Kentucky, Michigan, and Indiana) three times. His work has been shown far and wide, including at Auckland, New Zealand; Vanderbilt Hall Grand Central Terminal in New York City; the Museum of Contemporary Art Miami, Fla.; Science Museum London, England; and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Thousands of his images have been published in the U.S. and worldwide in newspapers, magazines, books, brochures and websites for both editorial and commercial uses.