Battle Lake Photographer Gregory Gerhart Turns Grief into Community Photo Donations

When Denise Gerhart died in spring 2021 after a five-year cancer journey, Battle Lake resident Gregory Gerhart channeled that loss into a public practice: giving his photographs away. He now donates images to cancer fundraisers, churches and other community events, and has more than 180 photo canvasses hanging in his living room to share with visitors.

Gerhart is originally from Brownsdale in southeastern Minnesota and spent 17 years in Belle Plaine after buying a business and raising a family there. He worked as a federal meat inspector from 2005-21 before retiring. His turn to photography began more prosaically: he “bought a decent camera to photograph his sons playing sports,” and found the hobby deepened while he and his wife took drives to take pictures during her illness.

The work is self-taught and daily. Gerhart takes photos every day and visits Glendalough State Park at least two times a week, carrying what the profile describes as a 36-pound backpack with cameras and lenses. He goes out “without a plan and rather has ‘nature present it to me,’” and he frames the outings as restorative: “I do it for just the love of doing it,” he said, and “whether it’s raining or snow or whatever it is. It’s just my peace and serenity and my place to go and have a camera with me.”

His subjects range from small-scale natural life to grand skies. Gerhart “really enjoys taking photos of landscapes and nature, from butterflies to mushrooms,” and he’s taken many photos of the Northern Lights, a pursuit that has included helping other people find them as well. The combination of frequent local outings and a receptiveness to weather and season has produced the volume of work now displayed on his living-room walls.

Visitors to Gerhart’s home are invited into that collection. With “more than 180 photo canvasses hanging up in his living room,” he makes viewing a ritual: “They have to tell me their favorite picture or photo today and why,” he said. That ritual underscores the ethos he returns to when asked about selling his work: his photography “was never his intention to sell his photos,” and instead has “turned into a gift he shares with the community.”

Having retired from federal service in 2021 and settled in Battle Lake, Gerhart continues to take daily trips to Glendalough State Park and other Otter Tail County locations, carrying his equipment and looking for moments to capture and to donate as a way of keeping Denise’s memory present in local fundraisers and congregations.