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In 1953, Nye was awarded two prizes for his photographs "Sunday Morning" and "The Bath" in Photography Magazine's prestigious "International Picture Contest." Jurors were Irving Penn, Arthur Rothstein, Edward Steichen, and William Eugene Smith. Nye owned and operated a portrait studio in Missoula from 1957 through 1961. In 1965, he began his famous Eddie's Club Collection, a series of 106 black & white portraits of working class people in the Missoula area that became a major tourism draw for Missoula. Nye taught photography classes at the University Center, University of Montana from 1969 through 1981. He received a BFA degree from the U of M in 1976. Lee Nye lectured and wrote about photography extensively. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and Europe. His photographs were published in Photography, Dance Magazine, Playboy Magazine, Art News, American Craft, and Montana Magazine. Lee Nye died on November 11, 1999.

Lee Nye. Transitions in The Nude: 1950 - 1999 Lee Nye was born in Hysham, Montana, 1926. He went to a high school in Butte, where his father worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad, Nye quit high school at 17 to work as cowboy in Dillon, but realized after six months that this wasn't the life he wanted. He joined the United States Navy and spent his tour of duty in the South Pacific. In 1950, he moved to California and studied photography at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. He graduated from Brooks in 1952. During the following years, Nye worked as a photographer in Los Angeles and New Orleans covering theatre, movie still photography, fashion, news and portraiture.	© Lee Nye by Eddie Seal, 1998
© Lee Nye, The Bath, 1952	In 1953, Nye was awarded two prizes for his photographs "Sunday Morning" and "The Bath" in Photography Magazine's prestigious "International Picture Contest." Jurors were Irving Penn, Arthur Rothstein, Edward Steichen, and William Eugene Smith. Nye owned and operated a portrait studio in Missoula from 1957 through 1961. In 1965, he began his famous Eddie's Club Collection, a series of 106 black & white portraits of working class people in the Missoula area that became a major tourism draw for Missoula. Nye taught photography classes at the University Center, University of Montana from 1969 through 1981. He received a BFA degree from the U of M in 1976. Lee Nye lectured and wrote about photography extensively. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and Europe. His photographs were published in Photography, Dance Magazine, Playboy Magazine, Art News, American Craft, and Montana Magazine. Lee Nye died on November 11, 1999.
Lee Nye left behind him an enormous and impressive artistic legacy. With the exhibition Transitions in the Nude: 1950-1999 the Montana Museum of Art & Culture wants to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Lee Nye's death and honor his role as a leading photographer in Montana. In his 50 years as a leading artist, he created an extraordinary oeuvre. Although he was best known for his portraits of "regulars" at Eddie's Club, Nye's major work focused on female nudes. The Black Series, The White Series, The Graphites, and The Transpositionals celebrate the beauty of the female body. These black & white photographs depict the female body in an aesthetic, sensitive, sublime and unique way that clearly demonstrates photography is an art form.	© Dunes, 1968
© Grecian Nude, 1952	Lee Nye started his Black Series in the early 1950's. The title derives from the dark background used in the photo series. Nye's early nudes were traditional nude portraits, such as "Grecian Nude" (1952). These earlier works use low key lighting. Light and shade models the female body like a sculpture. The poses and compositions give these portraits a classic look: "Grecian Nude" almost appears like a Hellenistic Aphrodite torso.
In the 1960's, the nude portraits of his Black Series became more and more abstract. Through his positioning of the model, unusual camera angles, selective composition, and a talent for using natural light he created aesthetic abstractions of the female body. In "Dunes" (1968) the artist made the female body appear like a landscape. He also created a series of photos where he positioned the body to look like a hand or an object: "Boxing Glove" (1965), for example, is a tight shot of a female torso and thigh from a side view.	© Boxing Glove, 1965
© Nude #5, 1970	In the mid 1960's Nye began his White Series. These high key portraits of nudes have tones of white and light grey on a white background. There is light and shade on the model but the contrasts are less extreme than in the Black Series. As a result, the White Nudes appear less theatrical and dramatic than the Black Nudes. Instead, the White Nudes are sensitive portrait of the female body with a radiant and translucent quality. They give an atmosphere of brightness. Nye was an expert in using available light. He always used natural light and occasionally a reflector board for all of his work.
Lee Nye created the Graphite Series in the 1970's and 80's. He printed white nudes on white backgrounds with a very controlled grain-like effect. It was a process that involved shaving graphite onto a negative saturated with photo flo. Lee manipulated the graphite on the negative until he found the effect he wanted. Some areas of the negative were covered heavily with graphite while other areas were coated very slightly. The image was printed after the negative dried. Lee Nye's manipulation of grain helped to obtain different tones. His Stone Nudes, for example, are Graphite Nudes that appear like graphite stone. In some parts of his nudes, parts of the body appear to be estranged or exaggerated, like this low angle shot. Nye approached the idea that beauty exists in forms other than those prescribed by society.	© Stone Nude III, 1973
© Abundance, 1997	In his Transpositional Series, Lee Nye further developed the concept of the body as a landscape. He started the series in the 1960's. In the Transpositionals, the female body is blended into the landscape to become an integral part of the whole scene. The Transpositional landscapes convey a nostalgic and sometimes surreal atmosphere. At first view, they appear to be deserted emphasizing the beauty and abundance of nature. But on closer examination, the human being is overall present. Nye's Transpositionals become a game of conjecture where the viewer is asked to find the female body hidden in the picture. Lee often used three or more negatives to create the photographs. Through the blending of nudes and landscapes, he equates the beauty of the female body with the beauty of nature.