Through the photographs he shot of his own landscape works, Arthur E. Bye proved that landscape architects are more than mere gardeners or surveyors. His photographs are currently hanging in the Pollock Gallery in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center.

Bye, who was 82 at the time of his death in 2001, was considered one of the most influential and talented landscape architects of the 20th century.

Changing the image of landscape architects, Bye was known to work on site with contractors instead of spending most of his time at the drafting table. Bye, a naturalist, said his most successful works were those which looked as if they hadn’t been worked on.

Early on in his career, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who is considered by many to be America’s finest architect, asked Bye to design a woodland landscape for the Reisley house in Pleasantville, NY.

One of his most notable works of garden architecture can be found at the home of heir and ex-chief executive of the Estee Lauder Company, Leonard Lauder.

One of Bye’s favorite jobs was his work at the Southampton home of political activist and philanthropist, George Soros, where he shaped four acres of lawn into mounds imitating ocean waves.

Other photographs in the exhibit include his work at the world-class racehorse facilities of Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky., and a Massachusetts Seaside Landscape from Warham, Mass.

His photographs show a view of his extremely natural landscape work and are in black and white or color based on the subject: Photographs of the bright leaves of fall are in color, while a pathway of endless trees is photographed in black and white.

An innovator of his time, Bye reintroduced the idea of using native plants in his landscapes and restoring native woodlands in a time of minimalism in the 1950s.

Even as a visiting design critic at Columbia, Cornell and Penn State, Bye rarely theorized about his work. He instead published books in which he showcased the photography of his work.

His father, Arthur E. Bye Sr., was considered a talented artist as a painter, craftsman, writer and lecturer. The elder Bye, who was a professor of art, may have influenced his son through his own landscape paintings.

The younger Bye’s photography collection of his landscapes is said to include well over 40,000 photographs.

The Arthur E. Bye Exhibit will be displayed through Saturday, Oct. 13, in the Pollock Gallery in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Hours run Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admittance is free for all.