A self-taught wildlife photographer, U.S. Army veteran, and seven-time Texas Parks & Wildlife contributor, Stewart has a collection of his work on exhibit at the Bedford Main Public Library through October 31.
Bedford, Texas -- When Fort Worth Public Art brought glass-and-stone mosaics to the Chisholm Trail Parkway, the wildlife imagery reinterpreted in that public art drew on photographs by local artists — among them Dennis Stewart. More than a decade later, the self-taught Fort Worth wildlife photographer is sharing his work with the community directly: a collection of Stewart's images, drawn from his TCU Press book Seeing Wild, is on exhibit at the Bedford Main Public Library. The free exhibition is on display now through October 31, 2026, during regular library hours, and features images captured over more than twenty years in the field — from intimate portraits of wildlife found in Texas to remarkable encounters in Yellowstone National Park, Kenya, and beyond.
Published by TCU Press in July 2025, Seeing Wild is a 336-page, full-color collection that pairs Stewart's photographs with his own reflective narratives. From the delicate flutter of a butterfly's wings to the commanding presence of a predator at rest, each image captures a moment of life frozen in time. The book's cover — a macro photograph of the eye of a gharial — is emblematic of Stewart's signature approach: finding the infinite, easily overlooked details of life and asking the viewer to pause and truly see them.
“Nature is all around us,” is the idea at the heart of Stewart's work. He is as likely to find his subject in a city park, a backyard, or along a Texas roadside as in a distant wilderness, and he brings the same patience and wonder to a nesting sparrow as to a soaring red-tailed hawk. That philosophy is what makes Seeing Wild — and the Bedford exhibition — an invitation for viewers of every age to look more closely at the world just outside their own door.
Exhibit Details
Seeing Wild — Wildlife Photography by Dennis Stewart
On display now through October 31, 2026, during regular library hours
Bedford Main Public Library, 2424 Forest Ridge Drive, Bedford, Texas
Free and open to the public
About the Author
Dennis John Stewart is a Fort Worth–based wildlife photographer and the founder of Nature's Realm Wildlife Photography. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he is a self-taught photographer, a U.S. Army veteran, and a longtime AT&T quality engineer who spent more than two decades in the field with a camera. In the introduction to Seeing Wild, he describes the collection as the product of “over twenty years of fieldwork spanning three continents, multiple national parks, untold numbers of wildlife refuges, and the great state of Texas.”
Stewart's photographs have earned recognition well beyond Texas. His images have been selected multiple times as National Geographic “Daily Dozen” Editor's Picks; his work has appeared in Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine seven times, including an April 2021 cover; one of his photographs was licensed for a Scholastic book cover and another for an IFC film poster; and he has taken first-place honors in regional competitions, among them the Trinity River photo contest in Dallas and a contest at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. His wildlife imagery was also among the work selected by Fort Worth Public Art for the Chisholm Trail Parkway project. Seeing Wild is his first book.
About the Book
Seeing Wild: Wildlife Photography
By Dennis Stewart
TCU Press · Hardcover · 336 pages · 10 × 10 in.
$42.95 · ISBN 978-0-87565-908-4 · Published July 22, 2025
Available from TCU Press (tcupress.com) and wherever books are sold.
About TCU Press
TCU Press, the book-publishing arm of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, publishes works on the history, culture, literature, and art of Texas and the American West. Its list ranges from regional history and fiction to photography and the natural world.
