Ian Dwyer is an award-winning, emerging photographer whose work explores the relationship between light and dark, the sun, moon and stars, and how those make an impression upon the built and unbuilt environment. Based in Salem, Oregon, his photography ranges from rivers to the bridges that cross them, historic streetscapes to modern structures, and art installations to reflections of the four elements. Essentially, anything that gives familiar or foreign places their character.

Dwyer was bit by the “sustainability bug” in the mid-90s while earning his degree in urban planning, architecture, and construction in Las Vegas. For his senior project, he was required to design a multi-family building based on a renowned architect and a target market demographic. Dwyer chose water as his architect, reasoning that nothing shapes a landscape with more force or patience. He designed for a market demographic 150 years into the future: the seventh generation. You can say he looks at the world a little differently.

This sustainable worldview carries naturally into his photography, where a shift of even a few degrees can change how place is seen. The name itself Kinetic 45 Photo Works is about motion (Kinetic), stillness (45th Parallel), creativity (Photo), and connection (Works). As someone in long-term recovery, Dwyer values connection above all else, with creativity as an outlet for emotion.

His work celebrates the Pacific Northwest and other U.S. regions not simply as place, but as a connected tapestry of energy captured in a moment in time. These moments are meant to be lived with, inviting a second, third, or perhaps infinite look wherever the work finds its place.

His piece "Kinetic Heritage" graced the cover of the City of Salem's 2026 Water Quality Report.