A now-open exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts explores landscape photography in Utah.
In September, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City opened the exhibition Shaping Landscapes: 150 Years of Photography in Utah,which will feature imagery that shows how land in the West has been used in the past and still today.
George N. Ottinger (1873-1949), Red Canyon, 1931, gelatin silver print, watercolor on paper. Purchased with Funds from Friends of the Art Museum, UMFA2006.30.1.19.
“The history of photography in the United States is deeply tied to the American West. From 19th-century survey expeditions to 21st-century environmental movements, Western landscapes are activated as some of the most prominent subjects in American photographic history,” the Utah museum notes. “This exhibition traces 150 years of Utah landscape photography from the UMFA’s expansive collection. The artworks offer insight into how generations of photographers have used this technology to construct an image of Utah. They also confront humanity’s impact on this land since the 1870s—the railroads, highways, mines and other forms of infrastructure that puncture the ‘natural’ landscape and shape our perception of this place.”
Olive Garrison, Aspens on Boulder Mountain, 1951, gelatin silver print on paper. Purchased with funds from Dr. James E. and Debra Pearl to the Dr. James E. and Debra Pearl Photograph Collection. UMFA2000.26.1.150.
Photographers represented in the exhibition include William Henry Jackson, Charles Roscoe Savage, George N. Ottinger, Olive Garrison, John Telford and many others. The images include the forests, deserts and cities in Utah, but also focus on issues such as logging, the creation of roads, mining and drilling for fossil fuels.
Russel Albert Daniels, Fracking in the Uinta Basin, Utah, 2023, archival inkjet print on paper. Purchased with funds from The Paul L. And Phyllis C. Wattis Fund. UMFA2023.8.1.
The exhibition will remain on view through March 3, 2024. Visit exhibits.lib.utah.edu for more information. —
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