The work of a veteran Lehigh Valley photojournalist is taking flight.

“Abstractions of Form,” featuring the fine art photography of Chuck Zovko, continues through Dec. 16, The Snow Goose Gallery, Bethlehem.

Zovko, a Bethlehem native, made his mark as a photojournalist for The Morning Call.

Twice, the self-taught photographer was named Pennsylvania Press Photographers Association “Photographer of the Year.”

In 1998, Zovko was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his photographic essay on “Fatherhood.”

Zovko’s photography has been published in Time, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Paris Match and Stern.

“You only document what is there,” says Zovko of the rule he followed throughout his 45-year career as a news photographer.

“A good photojournalist doesn’t try to interpret the news, so readers can interpret it their way.

“I’m going to go my own way,” says Zovko of his retiring in 2006 as a Morning Call staff photographer. This allowed him to focus his camera on art photography.

“Abstractions of Form” has taken him on a journey of bringing abstract expressionism into his landscape work. “I love it,” Zovko says of this new direction.

While his wife was driving the vehicle, Zovko says, “I shot that out of a car window as a five-second time exposure,” referring to “Delabole Beauty” (2023; archival pigment print, 30 in. x 30 in.).

“These are all creative happy accidents,” he says, noting decades of experience making photographs provides a “more informed” role in the “happy accidents.”

“What I am showing is an extension of what was there,” he says about his recent works.

Large-scale, color, abstract landscapes are separated by smaller works where Zovko captures the moods reflected in an ever-changing sky. As with “Motion” (2023; archival pigment print, 6 in. x 9 in.), the mostly black-and-white images are inspired by American photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s “Equivalents” series from the 1920s.

During the mid-1970s, when working as an assistant for a Newsweek photographer in Los Angeles, Zovko drove north on California State Route 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, to practice shooting landscapes.

While photographing Point Lobos, “This old man comes up to me, an old man with a beard. He goes ‘Are you having a good time?’” says Zovko.

“Why don’t you shoot that same shot, but bend down a little bit and aim up on it?” asked the stranger to a grateful Zovko.

A few years later, Zovko realized the old man giving him advice was renowned photographer Ansel Adams.

“We were looking for something fresh and this is it,” says Snow Goose Gallery owner Mary Serfass. Her son David Evan Serfass curated the exhibit.

Zovko studied to be a physical therapist in college, but dropped out soon after borrowing his grandfather’s camera for the weekend. He fell in love with photography.

Zovko enrolled in photography courses at Northampton Community College, but much of his skills with film, digital and iPhones were learned on his own. He works out of his home studio in Bethlehem.

“Abstractions of Form,” through Dec. 16, Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Bethlehem. Gallery hours: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday; closed Sunday, Monday. 610- 974-9099; http://www.thesnowgoosegallery.com/

“Gallery View” is a column about artists, exhibitions and galleries. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com