Frederick Doerfler, Jr. is a digital photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Work explores the dialogue between the natural and built environment through urban reflections, architectural abstraction, and travel landscapes. These photographs are from his series Urban Reflections, which center the façades of Pittsburgh’s modern buildings. Doerfler describes how this series demonstrates “how the city becomes both subject and artist, recasting familiar structures as abstract forms of color, motion, and pattern.” The photograph, Summer Day Reflection, depicts three buildings through the paned, reflective surface of another’s. The geometric grid of the reflective surface contrasts the rippled reflection, in which the reflected buildings become curved and distorted. The colors, of the wispy clouds, earthy brown, sandy tan, bright blue sky along with the water-like surface of the building, evoke the idea of an abstracted beach landscape, drawing a unique relationship between the built and the natural.
Artist Statement on the series Urban Reflections: Pittsburgh
The mirrored façades of Pittsburgh’s modern architecture transform ordinary streets into shifting compositions of light, geometry, and reflection. My Urban Reflections series reveals how the city becomes both subject and artist, recasting familiar structures as abstract forms of color, motion, and pattern. Each image is digitally captured and refined through Lightroom and Photoshop, with careful tonal adjustments and selective cropping to heighten balance and rhythm. The process preserves the authenticity of the moment while highlighting the city’s innate artistry and its ability to reinvent itself through the language of reflection.
Modern Meets Traditional
Exhibitions
- 2025 – 24 6×6 Minis, Manos Gallery, Tarentum, PA
- 2025 – 140th Anniversary Exhibition of the Pittsburgh Photography Club, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA
- 2025 – 140th Anniversary Exhibition of the Pittsburgh Photography Club, Manos Gallery, Tarentum, PA
- 2025 – 140th Anniversary Exhibition of the Pittsburgh Photography Club, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, PA
- 2018 to Present – Club and regional exhibitions, Pittsburgh, PA (Pittsburgh Photography Club shows)
Selected Awards & Recognitions
- 2025 – Gold Medal (Brother and Sister Playing) – LCM Circuit, Salons 1 & 3, India (PSA Patronage)
- 2025 – Silver Medal (Wildfire on the Palouse) – Mountain Circuit – Alps, India (PSA Patronage)
- 2025 – Honorable Mention (Brother and Sister Playing) – New York Click Circuit, USA (PSA Patronage)
- 2025 – Honorable Mention (Brother and Sister Playing) – Asansol International Digital Salon, India (PSA Patronage)
- 2020 – Gold Medal / Best of Show (Hole in Iceberg 23) – Grand Canyon Winter Circuit, USA (PSA Patronage)
- 2020 – Gold Medal / Best of Show (Night to Shine 2017) – Coachella International Exhibition, USA (PSA Patronage)
- 2020 – Bronze Medal (Full Moon Disko Bay 15) – Indian Grand Circuit, India (PSA Patronage)
- 2020 – Honorable Mention (Bison at Trout Creek) – Grand Canyon Winter Circuit, USA (PSA Patronage)
- 2020 – Honorable Mention (Full Moon Disko Bay 15) – Trofeo Torrets, Spain (PSA Patronage)
- 2020 – Honorable Mention (Camelback Iceberg, Disko Bay) – Jadan Circuit, Montenegro (PSA Patronage)
- 2019 – First Place (Full Moon Disko Bay 15) – Academy of Science and Art of Pittsburgh Salon, US
Website: www.DrFred.photography