2011 EARTH THROUGH A LENS
Photography Contest
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. - Native American Proverb
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“Earth Through a Lens” (ETAL) is an annual national juried photographic competition that seeks to enhance public education regarding development of a sustainable environment. Displays of the finalists’ photos are held each year in the Coachella Valley around the time of Earth Day (April 22). For 2011, we are delighted to hold two exhibits: one at the Rancho Mirage Public Library and the second at the Hyatt Regency Suites Hotel in Palm Springs. The exhibits highlight both the natural environment and human impact on the environment. The major themes this year include the impact of the car on our environment, preserving clean water, deforestation, desertification, our choices of human habitats, and energy production. We hope that the show encourages you to think about the choices we have in confronting these issues. Larry Fechter Chair, Earth Through a Lens www.earththroughalensPS.com
ETAL Photo Contest 2011
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The Automobile and Its Legacy
A Snowy Range Sunrise
There are an estimated 250 million gasoline vehicles registered in the US today Annual gasoline consumption approaches 140 billion gallons per year Passenger vehicles produce about 50% of all carbon monoxide released into the atmosphere and 30% of all oxides of nitrogen
Palm Springs, CA www.imageville.us
Gary Dorothy
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The bold shapes and relative permanence of an old truck remind us of the hills and mountains. Its windows showcase a profusion of brittlebush flowers. In the end, long after the truck has rusted away, the golden blossoms will probably return each spring.
ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Old Truck in Brittlebush
20” x 14” x 0”, 2009
More than 50 years after I clicked the shutter of my Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash camera to photograph clouds over the small midwestern town where I grew up, I’m still compelled to make photos. The results of my efforts are on year-round display at my gallery, IMAGEVILLE, in downtown Palm Springs.
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Nicholas Bardonnay
Los Angeles, CA www.nicholasbardonnay.com
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Color photograph, 21” x 32” x 0”, 2010
Turn Signal
Nicholas Bardonnay is a photographer and multimedia artist. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and many wonderful neighbors.“Having had a semi-nomadic childhood, the bulk of my memories are a patchwork of people and places.This experience developed an ongoing curiosity about the idea of place, its emotional underpinnings, and its cumulative effect on individuals and communities.”
I am fascinated by dualities; people and places in transition; the undertow of politics and history on our perceptions; and the slowly churning natural world that operates just on the periphery of our daily activities. Similar to how memory functions, my photography offers a glimpse into what exists, what has come before, and most importantly, what can be imagined. Earth Through a Lens
Kihei, HI alyda.gilmore@gmail.com
Alyda Gilmore
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There’s a car hanging in a tree just off the Mokulele Highway near the Maui Raceway Park. Some of the branches have grown through parts of the car’s frame. It looks like it’s been there a long while, and I don’t know how a young tree would find the strength to lift it from the ground.
ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Car in Tree
Digital, 27” x 27” x 0”, 2010
When I bought my Nikon D300 camera, I started making photos for the simple joy it brings. A short while later, I started taking photography classes to learn some new skills, techniques and ways of seeing the world around me. As an assignment, we were asked to express an emotion, from a given list, in a photograph. This submission scored a ‘Perfect Picture.’
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Christopher Boyer
Bozeman, MT www.kestralaerial.com
I am a commercial pilot providing mapping, photography and survey flights to a broad range of resource and conservation projects. Trained in fluvial geomorphology and hydrology, the aerial view has taught me landscape process, informed my conservation ethic, and inspires my imagery. Through my photography I explore and communicate important land use issues impacting a changing West.
Digital Aerial Photograph, 20” x 30” x 0”, 2009
Prairie Pothole Cars, South Dakota
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Flying throughout the west, between conventional aerial mapping and photography projects, I am able to explore these realities and make my own maps, which capture an abundance of detail, rather than an abundance of data. I am interested particularly on the layered evidence of natural processes upon human disturbances upon the natural landscape. Earth Through a Lens
Sausalito, CA www.robbadger.com
Rob Badger
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Many Native Americans live below the poverty line on small reservations with no money for waste collection or its transportation to a legal, regulated disposal site. Waste at this illegal site is burying a canyon with a stream in it. Polluted water is seen at the leading edge of the landfill. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Water Polluted by Illegal Dump
24” x 24” x 0”
For 40 years Rob Badger has created images, both beautiful and disturbing, of the natural world. Using aerial and ground perspectives, Rob’s color imagery focuses on conservation, population and environmental issues. He has won international awards for his Antarctica series, and “Best in Journalism” for his evocative environmental photography, including images documenting the impact of open pit gold mines on public lands.
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Mona Miri
Brookline, MA www.monamiri.com
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Digital Fine Art Photograph, 30” x 30” x 2”, 2008
Down Under the Overpass
Mona Miri is an environmental sustainable photographer. Having faced adversity as a child leaving her homeland of Iran, living in Germany and growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts, Mona’s style appropriately represents the struggle of change. However, she defines change through her environmental series, a collection of urban landscapes.
This project called ‘Modified Landscapes’ is a series of photographs in urban and industrial landscapes by the San Francisco Bay. My technique and vision are to portray the likely future of changing atmospheres and landscapes if we proceed with the harmful routes we have taken in our surroundings. The concept behind my work is to reveal the possible environmental and humanitarian changes we will have to live with in the years to come. Earth Through a Lens
Rob Badger
24” x 36” x 0”
For 40 years Rob Badger has created images, both beautiful and disturbing, of the natural world. Using aerial and ground perspectives, Rob’s color imagery focuses on conservation, population and environmental issues. He has won international awards for his Antarctica series, and “Best in Journalism” for his evocative environmental photography, including images documenting the impact of open pit gold mines on public lands.
Sunlight through brown smoke from the Zaca Wildfire casts amber light on land polluted by oil well drilling in a US Naval Petroleum Reserve. Winds drove smoke/ash plumes from California’s second largest fire (240K acres) 70 miles to Bakersfield. Severe air quality alerts were issued because of the polluted air. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
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Air Pollution Caused by Smoke Plume
Sausalito, CA www.robbadger.com
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Nelson Guda
Austin, TX www.nelsonguda.com
Refined
Photographic print, 24” x 36” x 0”, 2010
Nelson Guda is a photographer, writer and artist. For six years Dr. Guda has been photographing national forests to document lands that were protected by the 2001 Roadless Rule. Nelson’s photographs have been exhibited in the U.S. Senate in Washington, DC and as part of a retrospective on the influence of Ansel Adams on contemporary photography.
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This image was taken as part of a project to document the oil, gas and coal development of lands in the western US. Western public lands were leased for energy development at unprecedented rates during the last decade. This image shows the Shell Oil Refinery, Salt Lake City, Utah - nighttime. The Earth Through A Lens
Asheville, NC www.brookreynoldsphotography.com
Brook Reynolds
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Light, Sweet, Crude is an ongoing series that began in 2007. Photographic realism is used to depict the dilapidation and emptiness of abandoned gas stations to emphasize the inevitable failure of the current system. Fossil fuels are not a renewable resource, and their consumption endangers the entire planet. These desolate structures are evidence of the environmental impact that already exists in our communities. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Red Apple
Archival pigment print, 20” x 20” x 0”, 2010
Brook Reynolds is a fine art photographer based out of Asheville, North Carolina. She received a MFA in Photography from the University of Georgia in 2007. Photography allows her to interact with the world, making discoveries about what lies outside the self, while simultaneously exploring internal responses to these discoveries. She concentrates on projects that relate to her environmental concerns and reflect her spiritual connection to nature.
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Water The Coachella Valley relies on our aquifer which is recharged mainly by the Colorado River allotment
Cloud Splitter
Approximately 75% of residential water is used outdoors for irrigation and recreation
Hillsborough NJ www.danielleausten.com
K. Danielle Austen
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Ice drifting along the Hudson River in New York. Glaciers played a role in carving and shaping the Hudson, whose currents flow both ways. Although industrial and agricultural pollution has plagued the river, life in and around it have managed to thrive.“I am always taking photographs of nature during my travels, and I have a particular affection for finding beauty along the water’s edge. Water to me is calming; it brings me serenity and peace of mind. There is no natural resource more precious and needs our protection than water.” ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Hudson River, NY
2010
Danielle Austen’s photographs demonstrate the results of an investigation of light and shadow, the emotional impact of soft tones and the dramatic effect of sharp contrasts. As both a trained photojournalist and a fine art photographer Danielle seeks the serenity of the moment and the spirituality in her subjects.
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Christopher Boyer
Bozeman, MT www.kestrelaerial.com
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Digital Aerial Photograph, 20” x 30” x 0”, 2010
Canal, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
I am a commercial pilot providing mapping, photography and survey flights to a broad range of resource and conservation projects. Trained in fluvial geomorphology and hydrology, the aerial view has taught me landscape process, informed my conservation ethic, and inspires my imagery. Through my photography I explore and communicate important land use issues impacting a changing West.
A natural dendritic pattern drains rivulets of surface water into one of the arrow-straight drainage canals that break up the subtlety of the Bonneville Salt Flats. Reaching north from Interstate 80, between The Great Salt Lake and Wendover, these canals carve up a landscape so flat that only the patterns created by the rivulets suggest which direction they flow. Dissolved minerals in suspension provide the brilliant blue glow in the warmth of sunrise. Earth Through a Lens
Ester, AK dayates@mosquitonet.com
Douglas Yates
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My work explores the intersections of water and earth. Melting permafrost, stream crossings and thin ice fascinate me. In these locations and others, I find images of significance, icons of the natural world, that lend greater understanding to the water cycle at this latitude. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Kissing Water
Digital photograph, 14” x 18” x 0”, 2010
Douglas Yates watches water freeze in Ester, Alaska. Photography provides the means to document the event and its consequences. Yates is similarly excited to see it melt in the spring, and by mid-May can be found scouting the hills for erosion artifacts.
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Gary Zuercher
San Clemente, CA www.chromaconcepts.com
Badwater
Abstract Photography, 18” x 32” x 0”, 2011
Gary is originally from Central Illinois. In 1961, he traveled to the deserts of the Southwest for the first time where he was fascinated by the colors and textures of the Mojave. The capture of movement in still images continues to be one of his main objectives in photography. Another goal is to reveal the fractal geometry inherent in nature.
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The Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park contains the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Sometimes a significant rainfall will fill the Basin with water and the surrounding mountains and desert scenery are reflected in the pool. This image mimics the fractal geometry inherent in all of nature and is reminiscent of a Mandelbrot Set. Earth Through a Lens
Marina DeBris
23” x 17.25” x 0”, 2009
Marina moved to Los Angeles from Bondi Beach, Australia over 13 years ago. When she relocated to Venice, she was struck by the condition of the local beaches. Every day for the past 13 years she has been running on the beach and collecting trash. She tries to use humor and irony to show that the waste we create keeps coming back to haunt us.
Trained as a graphic designer at the Rhode Island School of Design, my interest in the intersection of art and the environment has been a constant. My first goal is to provoke viewers into thinking about the consequences of our habits, and how we can change them. My second goal is to get rid of all the garbage in my garage. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
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A Public Service Announcement
Los Angeles, CA www.washedup.us
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Susan Propper
Greenwood Village, CO www.susanpropper.com
Susan’s images have been widely exhibited in Colorado, featured in galleries and calendars. She has won international awards through Nature’s Best Photography, The Smithsonian Exhibition and this year had a photo included on the magazine’s cover.
Archival Inkjet Digital Photograph, 20” x 30” x 0”, 2010
Washed Ashore, Death of a Blue Whale
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Washed Ashore addresses the issue of man’s role in the near extinction of the blue whale. Decades of whale hunting and the establishment of vast shipping lanes where whales are known to feed have nearly decimated the species. This whale will be left to decay on the beach in California; its remains will eventually wash back out to sea. Earth Through a Lens
Deforestation resulting from agriculture, logging, fires, and climate change is especially acute in equatorial areas Forests absorb carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen Forests prevent soil erosion reducing desertification and are home to many animal species recreation
Green River, Uintah Basin, Utah
Deforestation
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John Griebsch
Pultneyville, NY www.johngriebsch.com
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Photographic Archival Inkjet, 21” x 29” x 0”, 2011
Undulating Hills Near Wahoo, NE
John Griebsch is an aerial photographer and pilot whose aerial landscapes depict natural and man-made landforms. His images of the American landscape have been made from his vintage Cessna 170, in which he has logged more than 100,000 miles. At present there are 250 images in his series of work, titled, AERIAS.
My aerial photographs present a sense of selective design applied to an extremely small, but significant area of the vast landscape over which I fly. I find the need to make geographical sense of the earth, as well as the need to make visual sense of a photograph. I work with ambiguity of scale; the strong graphic quality of nature; and with the hand of man upon nature. Earth Through a Lens
Hillsborough, NJ www.danielleausten.com
K . Danielle Austen
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Photographed from a kayak are the weathered drowned trees along the shoreline at Merrill Creek Reservoir in northwestern New Jersey. They are the remnants from when the area was flooded to create the reservoir in 1988.“Most people do not think that there is such beauty to be found in my home state of New Jersey, but I love proving that our natural environment is extraordinary.” ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Merrill Creek Reservoir
Merrill Creek Reservoir, 2010
Danielle Austen’s photographs demonstrate the results of an investigation of light and shadow, the emotional impact of soft tones and the dramatic effect of sharp contrasts. As both a trained photojournalist and a fine art photographer Danielle seeks the serenity of the moment and the spirituality in her subjects.
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Duane Prentice
Victoria, B.C., CANADA www.nomadicvisions.com
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lightjet c-print, 40” x 50” x 2”, 2010
Hart Lake #2
Duane Prentice is a cinema stills, documentary, and fine art photographer and is listed in the Magenta Foundation’s Carte Blanche. Duane divides his time between feature films, as a freelancer with Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail and personal documentary and fine art projects. Duane is a registered member of the IATSE 669 cinema camera union and the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).
Remnants is a collection of images of Vancouver Island photographed with an 8 x 10 view camera during the winter months. The shifting ideological forces of power and industry and the relentless thrust of nature shape these seemingly banal landscapes. Changes brought about through globalization and the end of resource extraction industries are continuously reshaping these island communities and the environment which once supported the people who live here. Earth Through a Lens
Charlottesville,VA www.staceyevansphotography.com
Stacey Evans
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The photographs provide a glimpse of time and place, expressing how our land is developed through the power of human interests and forces of nature. Each region offers similar yet different subject matter from basic materials to economic truths. I become a kind of voyeur, revealing beauty and mystery along the path of an evolving physical and social landscape. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Lone Tree
Pigment on Paper, 20” x 30” x 0”, 2010
Stacey Evans is a 2010 recipient of a Puffin Foundation grant for her Trainscapes project. She studied in the Art Foundation Program at Virginia Commonwealth University and received a BFA in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She teaches for the University of Virginia Art Museum, Piedmont Virginia Community College and St. Anne’s-Belfield Middle School.
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Steven Bundy
Oceanside, CA www.stevenbundy.com
13” x 19” x 0”, 2010
Lonely Oak
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I use my camera as a tool to capture and preserve the vast landscapes, crumbling buildings, forgotten rusting cars and evidence of diverse cultures I find in my travels. I find inspiration discovering intriguing hidden, remote villages that seem to be melting back into the earth. My wish is to give these timeless places new recognition Earth Through a Lens
Cumberland Center, ME www.cemorsephotography.com
Christopher Morse
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The Salton Sea was formed due to human error: the Colorado River burst through irrigations controls in 1905 and the accidental flooding was not controlled until 1907. The sea is fed by several rivers, as well as agricultural runoff drainage systems and creeks. There is no outflow and the runoff & rising salinity causes algae blooms, elevated bacteria levels and massive fish die-offs. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Three Dead Trees
Digital photograph pigment on paper (archival), 14” x 21” x 0”, 2009
C E Morse is a Photographer & graduate of RISD living in Maine.
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Nicholas Dantona
Franklin, TN www.ndantona.com
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22” x 20” x 0”, 2010
Joshua Avowing
Mr. Dantona is an award-winning fine art photographer whose work is collected by the Tennessee State Museum, the Cumberland Heights Foundation, the Indigo Hotel and private clients. His photographs are exhibited regularly throughout the US and now, internationally. As a Jacob Riis Award Finalist, his portfolio:“Like Hemingway, but Smaller”, will be published in 2011.
Perhaps the greatest advocate for environmental protection is to communicate the beauty and emotional impact of the grandeur and wonder of nature. I make photographs that attempt spiritual depth and meaning, challenging an age of scientific materialism, nihilism and spiritual bankruptcy. I make photographs as quest for authenticity and a plea for the rediscovery of connection. Earth Through a Lens
Wrightwood, CA www.margueritegarth.com
Marguerite Garth
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This collection represents my visual poem to the austere and subtle beauty of the high desert, an environment losing the battle to urban sprawl and climate change.Taken on the road to Barstow.
ETAL Photo Contest 2011
A Death in the Desert 6
Digital infrared.archival print, 16” x 12” x 0”, 2011
Marguerite is an award winning photographer, with multiple first place finishes in international photography contests.
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Desertification
The degradation of formerly productive land Desertification, the loss of habitable land to desert, has multiple causes beyond simply reduced rainfall Desertification can result from overuse of land through grazing and agriculture, deforestation, and climate change
Longmont, CO www.MaureenRuddyBurkhart.com
Maureen Ruddy Burkhart
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Taken in Xiang Sha Wan, Inner Mongolia, China, on the eastern edge of the Gobi Desert, near the Yellow River. The smokestacks seen in the distance are from the City of Erdos. Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, aperture priority, shutter speed: 500, f/10, ISO 250, w/EF 24~105 f/4.0 lens. Outdoor temperature...frigid! ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Meeting Our Needs
16.5” x 22” x 0”, 2011
Maureen received her BFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1976 and her career has taken many turns since then, from directing videos for the US Navy, to commercial stock and fine art photography. Her work has received numerous national and international awards, including the Photography Masters Cup over 4 times. She was recently invited to exhibit my work in Inner Mongolia, China.
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Brandy Dahrouge
Calgary Alberta Canada www.brandydahrouge.com
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20” x 20” x 0”, 2009
Lake Eyre, South Australia
Brandy Dahrouge is a photographer and arts educator based in Calgary, Canada. She holds an MFA in Media Arts from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Specializing in contemporary landscape imagery. Her work shows in galleries throughout Canada, Australia, and the United States.
This image is from the series and MFA thesis titled “Where is the Middle of Nowhere?”. This series chronicles my search for an “unknown” and “untouched” landscape. These images articulate the presence of humanity in “remote” places, and demonstrate that it is not possible to get away from ourselves and our impact on the planet. Earth Through a Lens
Coronado, CA bernschmuker@hotmail.com
Bernadette Schmuker
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Our vital need is for fresh water, though we know our resources are not forever... Location: Laguna Salada, Baja California, Mexico where there used to be a huge lagoon; now just barren desert.
ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Thirst
Digital, 8” x 10” x 0”, 2011
Bernadette Schmuker aims for conversation and conservation of ecology. In 2009, she received the distinction as Finalist in Photographer’s Forum Magazine’s hard cover publication of “The Best of Photography 2009”, chosen from among 3,600 worldwide entrants. In 2010 she participated as behind the scenes photographer for the film ‘The Whale Man’; an ecological movie by Alfonso Arambula from Baja California, Mexico.
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Kay Walsh
Bainbridge Island WA www.kaywalshphotography.com
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Digital Black and White, 16” x 20” x 0”, 2007
Evening on Eel Creek Dune, Oregon
Kay’s vision has been nurtured over the years by her time at sea, sailing the vast oceans for over a decade. As a landscape photographer today, she uses that vision to capture the energy of the land and how it shapes the scene she wants to share.
Evening on Eel Creek Dunes, Oregon. This digital capture picture was taken on a lonely coastal dune just before sunset, when the wind had died and the cloud behind the distant hillock was rising.
Earth Through a Lens
New York, NY nkudirka@aol.com
Nijole Kudirka
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The Ceara Dune series was photographed in the Northeast Coast of Brazil, an amazing landscape with intense space and light. These coastal dunes are a unique and very fragile environment that is threatened by development. They are shaped by the wind and are both permanent and shifting. The ambiguity between the solid and the fluid, the permanent and the fleeting, earth and sky constantly fascinates me. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Tatajuba Dunes
Archival ink jet print, 20” x 20” x 0”, 2009
Nijole Kudirka lives and works in New York City. After obtaining her Ph.D. at Yale University, she studied at the Studio School, School of Visual Arts and International Center for Photography (ICP). She has traveled extensively photographing diverse sites around the world. She has exhibited widely in the US and internationally. She has won the Fotoarte Brasilia prize, 2009.
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Matt Cauthron
Indio, CA www.imagemonki.com
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Digital Photograph, 16” x 16” x 0”, 2010
Honey, Where’s the Remote?
Matt is an Apple Distinguished Educator and Adobe Education Leader who runs the Digital Imaging program in the Digital Arts Technology Academy. Matt’s passion for photography began at an early age shooting the skate scene surrounding the ‘Badlands’ of the Pipeline Skateboard Park. From there, his work transitioned greatly from the internationally traded underground skatezines, through mixed media studio arts, and finally into the digital.
This image was collected roadside along the forgotten little ‘town’ of Rice, Arizona. It’s a place where folks traveling from Highway 10 to Lake Havasu no longer stop to fill the tanks of their boat-towed SUVs. Travelers now stop here to relieve themselves on the side of road and snap photographs while looking down yonder through a glistening desert mirage. Earth Through a Lens
Golden, CO www.goldenimpressions.net
Kevin Louche
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This photograph was taken from the air above “Valley of Fire State Park” in Nevada, 50 miles north-east of Las Vegas. Facing south, the early sunrise highlight the red rock outcroppings. Taken April 12, 2010, 7 AM using a Sony DSC-H20 , 1/80s, f/4, ISO80.
ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Red Planet in Nevada
Digital Photo Print, 16” x 20” x 0”, 2010
Kevin Louche, b. 1951; residing in Golden, Colorado, an enthusiast of all things visual, particularly the outdoors. Style consists of scenes with unusual lighting, deep shadows, naturally enhanced colorations, and sights not ordinarily available to the observer.
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John Griebsch
Pultneyville, NY www.johngriebsch.com
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Photographic Archival Inkjet print, 21” x 29” x 0”, 2011
Gary Ore Piles - Gary, Indiana USA
John Griebsch is an aerial photographer and pilot whose aerial landscapes depict natural and man-made landforms. His images of the American landscape have been made from his vintage Cessna 170, in which he has logged more than 100,000 miles. At present there are 250 images in his series of work, titled, AERIAS.
My aerial photographs present a sense of selective design applied to an extremely small, but significant area of the vast landscape over which I fly. I find the need to make geographical sense of the earth, as well as the need to make visual sense of a photograph. I work with ambiguity of scale; the strong graphic quality of nature; and with the hand of man upon nature. Earth Through a Lens
Long Beach, CA www.lewisfrancis.net
Lewis Francis
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This image is one of a series taken in the late afternoon following intense summer thunderstorms in the Capitol Reef area of Utah. The area includes some of the most incredible scenery in the US. The late afternoon light together with the clear air and majestic cloud formations add a layer of heavy drama to this classic American landscape. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Shadowlands # 2
9” x 13” x 0”, 2010
The sense of space of the American landscape has always filled Lewis with wonder largely because he grew up in the tiny territory of Gibraltar. The scale and stillness of the vast deserts and dramatic mountains profoundly moved this teenager. They continue to inspire him today. His work has been recognized at Prix De la Photographie in Paris, the International Photography Awards and the 2010 ETAL exhibit amongst others.
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Chris Palmer
Glendale, AZ CJPalmerPhoto@gmail.com
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Giclee, 16” x 24” x 0”, 2010
Grand Canyon
Chris strives to capture fascinating and beautiful images of the world, whether it is natural or man made.
Grand Canyon: Taken in June 11, 2010 in Grand Canyon, AZ during a light monsoon storm.
Earth Through a Lens
Long Beach, CA www.michael-gordon.com
Michael Gordon
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The dramatic and moon-like Caineville Badlands are found in south-central Utah, sandwiched between Capitol Reef National Park to the west and the Canyonlands National Park to the east. The iconic Factory Butte dominates this landscape (prominent in this photograph), with the Henry Mountains visible in the distance. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Rare Earth
Photography, large format, 16” x 20” x 0”, 2009
Michael E. Gordon is an award-winning fine art landscape photographer of unusual and overlooked natural landscapes of California and beyond. He is best known for his black and white ‘Desert’ series. Awards and recognition include International Photography Awards; Prix de la Photographie, Paris; and Black & White Spider Awards.
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Eileen Wold
Baltimore, MD www.eileenwold.com
Removal
Digital SLR Color Photograph, 20” x 30” x 0”, 2010
Eileen Wold earned her MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art and her BA in Studio Art from Loyola University Maryland. She studied for one year at the Art Academy of Leuven, Belgium and has shown her work at galleries and universities across the US. She has been featured in the Baltimore Sun, Sobo Voice, AOL’s City’s Best and Metropolis Magazine. Wold explores themes in landscape, ecology and sustainability.
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This photo is part of a six month investigation into the coal mine industry of southern West Virginia. I wanted to investigate the extraction of coal from all angles. I toured an underground mine, took photos of streams and communities changed by the industry and chartered a flight over active surface mines to capture how ecological systems interact with our systems of power generation. Earth Through a Lens
Human Habitats Land use and housing density influence energy use, our environmental impact and quality of life How will the choices we make today shape our society and the pressure we place on the environment for natural resources such as energy, water, and clean air?
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Brad Temkin
Brad Temkin www.bradtemkin.com
Brad Temkin has been documenting the human impact on the contemporary landscape for many years. His work is part of several permanent collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Akron Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Photography. A monograph of Temkin’s work was published in 2005 entitled “Private Places: Photographs of Chicago Gardens”. Temkin currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago.
Archival Inkjet, 81.28 cm x 101.6 cm x 0”, 2010
111 S. Wacker Drive (looking east)
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My view of the world is that of a “good” place (rather than evil), and the notion of human presence, and our impact - or imposition - on our environment runs throughout. In the series “Rooftop”, I address what we do to correct our folly and make up for our relentless need to expand. Earth Through a Lens
Michael Callaghan
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We are living an aftermath. We have experienced a ‘shopocalypse’ - a global consumerism ethos run amok. These images explore consumption of the environment as an afterthought. These images appropriate the codes of the language of advertising and consumerism and the force of propaganda in the urban landscape. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Imagine?
12” x 16” x 0”, 2009
San Francisco, CA mike.callaghan@sbcglobal.net
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Joshua Greer
Athens, GA www.jdudleygreer.com
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Archival Pigment Print, 24” x 30” x 0”, 2009
Power Plant and Home
Joshua Dudley Greer was born and raised in southern Pennsylvania before moving to Baltimore, Maryland to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art. After receiving his BFA in photography in 2002 he went on to earn his MFA from the University of Georgia in 2009. He is currently living in Tennessee where he teaches photography at East Tennessee State University.
These photographs were taken outside Point Pleasant, WV at an explosives manufacturing and storage site. In 1945, the site was closed and converted into a wildlife management area. A system of ponds and wetlands was constructed, but in the early 1980’s the area was placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List and many of the toxic and explosive contaminants are simply buried on site. Earth Through a Lens
Barrington, RI www.stevesmithphotography.net
Steven Smith
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My photographs question the desire to build over and destroy the existing landscape in order to become closer to nature. This project is in the final shooting stage, when completed it will be my second publication in a trilogy of books that critique suburban sprawl. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Cul du Sac, Ivins, Utah, 2007.
Photo Ink Jet Print, 22” x 32” x 0”, 2010
For the last twenty years Steven has been photographing the suburban landscape as it invades the wilderness. The project Close To Nature examines homeowners’ use of small-scale effigies of the landscape as a decorating element. These sculptural recreations are designed to blend in seamlessly with the surrounding terrain and bring nature’s grandeur to the individual yard.
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Michael Kolster
Brunswick, ME www.dailypost.bowdoin.edu
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Pigment print 24” x 28” x 0”, 2009
Germain at West End Blvd..
Michael Kolster teaches at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and pursues a variety of projects that touch upon the landscape and a sense of place, specifically how these places can be read as dynamic interactions of human interests and palimpsests of change and flux.
My photographs come from a long-term and ongoing project, concerned with how we perceive and effect change in the places we inhabit. Now that popular consensus is beginning to embrace the fact that our world is growing warmer, the uncertain future of cities like New Orleans may well be harbingers of change facing the places we all live in. Earth Through a Lens
Los Angeles, CA www.bhaydenphotography.com
Barbara Hayden
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Mountain Mosaic, a photograph from my “Sky” series, exemplifies humans imposing their need for ideal habitats in the most unlikely environments. Communities thriving with green fields, unnaturally sprouting, create a patchwork against the natural patterns of the rugged weatherworn terrain of the Rocky Mountains. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
Mountain Mosaic
Digital, 24” x 16” x 0”, 2009
Barbara’s childhood playgrounds were her father’s two studios and their darkrooms. He was a portrait photographer and her mentor. The School of Visual Arts, NYC, provided her formal education. After being widowed twice by age 34 she returned to college, got some degrees, and began teaching inner-city elementary school. Barbara is currently an Arts Chairperson and Technology Coordinator.
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Dan Ballard
La Junta, CO www.danballardphotography.com
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24” x 36” x 0” , 2010
Magic Valley
Dan Ballard is an award-winning travel and landscape photographer based in Colorado. Dan’s travel experiences have led him to over 40 countries on five continents around the world. His images have been on display around the country in such locations as the Denver International Airport, the Colorado State Capitol Building, the Koshare Indian Museum and the Longworth House.
“Magic Valley” Banff National Park, Canada. An amazing sunrise from the trail on Healy Pass.
Earth Through a Lens
Energy Production California law requires that 1/3 of electricity generated in the state come from renewable sources by 2020 The Federal government is also proposing goals for increasing the amount of energy that comes from renewable sources and from sources that do not yield greenhouse gases How will development of large alternative energy facilities impact the Coachella Valley?
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Deb Casso
Seattle, WA www.debcasso.com
Diagonals
12” x 18” x 0”, 2008
Deb Casso is a Seattle-based nature and landscape photographer born and raised in the coastal town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. For Deb, photography is an exercise in slowing down, observing, reflecting, and imagining. She strives to create images that portray the uniqueness and vast natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
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Simplicity and grace are common elements in nature and, probably more than anything else, I enjoy attempting to isolate and emphasize these themes in my photographs. The smaller,“quieter” details interest me greatly, especially when unique in form. In the process of setting up the tripod and composing the image, I have the opportunity to observe what might otherwise pass by unnoticed. Earth Through a Lens
St. Louis, MO www.ellenjantzen.com
Ellen Jantzen
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I took a series of photos out of the passenger window while on a 6,000 mile road trip from Missouri to California using a point and shoot camera. I deliberately used this type of camera to capture images in a spontaneous way. Many times we passed so quickly I missed shots, but other times I was able to anticipate and shoot before I really saw and was surprised by the captured image. ETAL Photo Contest 2011
California_04_13_1;43PM
Digital Photography, 12” x 30” x 0”, 2010,
Born in St. Louis, Ellen graduated from FIDM, LA in 1992 with an advanced degree in fashion. As digital technology advanced and cameras were producing excellent resolution, she found her perfect medium. It was a true confluence of technical advancements and creative desire that culminated in her current explorations in photo inspired art using both a camera and computer.
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John Beishke
Palm Springs, CA lenscap45@dc.rr.com
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Digital Photograph, 11.5” x 20” x 0”, 2009
Windmills, Denmark
John Beishke is a lifelong amateur photographer. He lives in the Coachella Valley. Travel and nature photography are his prime interests.
The windmills of the Middelgrunden offshore wind farm, located in Øresund, Copenhagen, Denmark, were photographed in June 2009 from a cruise ship. When built in 2000, the twenty turbines provided 4% of Copenhagen’s energy. The farm is a community wind energy cooperative project with half of the project owned by local investors such as farmers, businesses, and schools. Earth Through a Lens
Acknowledgements The organizers gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals to the success of ETAL2011: Jury: Ronald Childers, Palm Springs Staffan Eliasson, Uppsala Sweden Richard Proctor, Palm Springs Harry Nugent-Patten, Palm Desert Rodney VanGundy, Oklahoma City Andy Adams, Editor, Flakphoto.com Katherine Hough, Chief Curator, Palm Springs Art Museum Richard Lui, Staff Photographer, The Desert Sun Colin Westerbeck, Director, California Museum of Photography
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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PARTICIPATING SPONSORS
1st Gallery
The Klarman Family