Edward Byrne is a photographer, poet, literary critic, memoirist, and professor of English at Valparaiso University, where he serves as editor of Valparaiso Poetry Review and co-editor of Valparaiso Fiction Review. He includes seminars on nature writing and environmental literature among the courses he teaches. The author of eight collections of poetry, he also has edited two anthologies and has had more than 300 journal publications. Edward Byrne’s images of the Indiana Dunes have been featured in various periodicals or as book covers. His photographs have been displayed in one-man exhibitions, and he has offered presentations or workshops on photography.

As indicated on the Introduction page, Indiana Dunes presents an ongoing chronicle displaying an accumulating portfolio of photographs, sometimes accompanied by brief notes. Each photo focuses on a location in the Indiana Dunes region along Lake Michigan. The images sometimes are partnered with prose, such as contained on the 2017-2018-2019-2020-2021 Journal page, meant to explore and explain the topography—plus at times to offer any historic or cultural significance of the setting—as well as to reflect upon personal inspirations, observations, and experiences, occasionally including the photographic process involved with capturing the image. More substantial essays appear on the Articles page. Moreover, sets of photographs with thematic or photographic commonality can be viewed on the Photo Essays page.

An added element of the project includes lectures, public presentations, workshops, photo walks, and other events at various venues. Photography walks along trails of the Indiana Dunes State Park have been conducted in partnership with the Interpretive Naturalist of the state park. Moreover, a number of month-long gallery exhibitions of photographs from this project were held in 2017, 2018, and 2019 at the Indiana Dunes State Park Nature Center and the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center. More images are regularly exhibited on the Indiana Dunes State Park Facebook page. Selected images from this project also can be viewed at my Indiana Dunes Instagram page.

This project has been made possible with the assistance of 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 Arts in the Parks and Historic Sites: Individual Artists grants from the Indiana Arts Commission in conjunction with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as cooperation from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Indiana Dunes State Park. Support from a Valparaiso University Creative Work and Research grant that aided with the beginning of this endeavor in 2017 was appreciated. Edward Byrne began serving in 2021 as a volunteer contributor of fine art photography and commentary on the staff of Indiana Dunes State Park.

All content is covered under creative commons licensing, which allows and encourages anyone to download the photos or journal entries and share them with others as long as an acknowledgment of credit to Edward Byrne is included, but the works cannot be altered (except in reproduction size) or used commercially without express permission. Please use the Contact page for email correspondence, permission or purchasing requests, as well as to follow daily updates on social media—Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—through the links supplied. Also, please spread word about this site to others by using the easy media share buttons at the bottom of posts.