Obscura Gallery, Michael Berman, WildEarth Guardians, and the New Mexico Museum of Art present a celebration event and a photographic exhibition on May 17 that will honor all that’s exceptional about our beloved Gila Wilderness on its 100th birthday. On May 17 at 3pm at the New Mexico History Museum, the celebration event will bring together unique voices and perspectives on the Gila Wilderness’ long history of inspiring advocacy through storytelling and art. Following the talk at the Museum, the photographic reception will be held at Obscura Gallery from 5 – 7pm at 225 Delgado Street, Santa Fe.

A hundred years ago, Aldo Leopold cooked up a fine idea in the Gila and we tagged these end-of-the-line places with the moniker “Wilderness†– so a celebration is in order. And an opportunity to come closer to that ideal.
-Michael P Berman

The 3 pm May 17 celebration talk at the New Mexico History Museum will feature celebrated photographer Michael P. Berman, as well as other contributors from the anthology First & Wildest: The Gila Wilderness at 100, published in 2022 by Torrey House Press. A Guggenheim Fellow, Berman uses his art as a catalyst to renew and heighten our perception of the land by bringing awareness to the complexity of the biological world through political and social dialogue of the West. His photographs appear throughout First & Wildest, and his 2012 monograph Gila: The Enduring Silence, published by Museum of New Mexico Press, reflects his explorations of its wildest corners.

The event will also include Elizabeth Hightower Allen, the anthology’s editor and a contributing editor at Outside magazine, and Albuquerque-based journalist Laura Paskus, senior producer of the NMPBS series, “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past Present, and Future” and author of the 2020 book “At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate,” and editor of the forthcoming anthology, “Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth,” from Torrey House Press.

Joining via video will be U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez, from New Mexico’s Second Congressional District, who is leading the effort to designate the Gila River as Wild and Scenic in Congress. An avid hunter, angler, and friend of the Gila, Vasquez is founder of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project and co-founder of the pioneering New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund.

With stories of place-based connection, we’ll celebrate the wonders of this country’s first wilderness, and we’ll think boldly about what’s needed to protect this special place for the next 100 years.

Following the talk at the Museum, the photographic reception will be held at Obscura Gallery from 5 – 7pm at 225 Delgado Street, Santa Fe.

A portion of the Obscura Gallery proceeds from the sales of Michael Berman’s exhibition artworks will be donated to WildEarth Guardians to continue their important work in the Gila Wilderness.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

VIEW ALL THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

      

 

Obscura Gallery presents the group exhibition, Picturesque Summer, radiating the vibrant palettes and warmth of summer through the photography of four female photographers, all of whom are instructors at the Santa Fe Photo Workshops. Each artist in the exhibition works in her own unique approach to the photographic medium: Susan Burnstine captures the essence of her dream-world in photographs taken with self-made cameras; Rania Matar captures the beauty and strength of the women in Lebanon working on the reconstruction of their country; Aline Smithson’s inspiration comes from paintings by James McNeil Whistler, and her work pushes the boundaries of the photographic medium through innovations at the intersection of photographic processes; and Jennifer Spelman captures vibrant moments from colorful Cuba, where she leads photographic exchanges in the country.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

VIEW ALL THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

Obscura Gallery presents a photographic exhibition by acclaimed British cinematographer Roger Deakins, reflecfting a life spent looking and telling stories through images from 1971 to the present, featuring work from his recent publication Byways (published by Damiani Books in 2021 and now in its 7^th edition). Although a highly acclaimed cinematographer, Deakins has also cultivated a passion for still photography, producing compelling portraits and landscapes from visually striking locations throughout the world.  This range of still photography includes notable images of our home state of New Mexico, as well as the seaside of Deakins’ native England, and cinematic views from New Zealand, Australia, and Scotland.  Roger Deakins has earned an extraordinary reputation for his diverse and expansive body of cinema work, spanning more than five decades. He has been nominated for 16 Academy Awards, winning twice for Bladerunner 2049 and 1917. His other well-known nominated Academy Award films include Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, Shawshank Redemption, True Grit, and so many more.

Obscura Gallery, Collected Works Bookstore, and Violet Crown proudly announce a collaborative offering of engaging events to pay tribute to the esteemed cinematographer and photographer Roger Deakins. These special events, which took place on Thursday, March 14, and Friday, March 15, aimed to honor Deakins’ remarkable contributions to the art of cinema and photography.

Included in the Obscura Gallery exhibition are a selection of images from the monograph Byways, now in its seventh reprint, which includes over 150 previously unpublished black-and-white photographs spanning five decades, from 1971 to the present. After graduating from college Deakins spent a year photographing life in rural North Devon, in South West England, on a commission for the Beaford Arts Centre; these images are gathered here for the first time and attest to a keenly ironic English sensibility, also documenting a vanished postwar Britain. A second suite of images expresses Deakins’ love of the seaside. Traveling for his cinematic work has allowed Deakins to photograph landscapes all over the world; in this third group of images, that same irony remains evident. There are several images in the exhibition taken in our home-state of New Mexico with the same character and signature style of which Deakins is revered.

Roger A. Deakins was born and raised in Devon. He studied Graphic Design at the Bath College of Art and before continuing on to the National Film School, he spent time shooting still photographs for North Devon, with the intent of capturing the disappearing rural farm life. Here he developed his love of still photography. After graduating from the National Film School, he shot a number of documentaries and then moved into feature films.

Roger has been nominated 16 times for an Academy Award and won twice for the movies BLADERUNNER 2049 and 1917. He has also been nominated 17 times for the top award of the American Society of Cinematographers, 11 times for the BAFTA  award and 12 times for the British Society of Cinematographers.  He has been awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Society of Cinematographers, the British Society of Cinematographers and the National Board of Review. He is also the only cinematographer to have been awarded the honor of CBE in 2013 as well as receiving the honor of knighthood in 2021. Roger also enjoys being a visual consultant on certain animated films. He has consulted on  WALL•E, RANGO, all of the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON films and VIVO, to name a few. In 2021, in addition to publishing Byways, he and his long-time collaborator James Ellis Deakins created an immensely successful podcast, Team Deakins, on the subject of filmmaking.

VIEW ALL THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE PRESS RELEASE HERE.