Exhibition focuses on what is ‘disappearing ’
Photographers depict dwindling environment, culture, technology
Elements of everyday life that are vanishing, whether in the environment or among parts of our popular culture, have inspired a new photography exhibition that goes up this weekend.
“Disappearing World,” opening tonight at Edition One Gallery, will be showing the work of 24 photographers until Sept. 8. The show is a part of PhotoSummer, an annual collaboration between Albuquerque and Santa Fe photography institutions to showcase New Mexican photography.
Gallery owner Pilar Law said she was inspired by the current political climate, which she says doesn’t give enough regard to what’s disappearing and needs preserving — species of animals that are dying off or being hunted to extinction, types of technology that are no longer relevant, or parts of the environment that no longer exist due to growing industrialization.
“This world as we know it, especially in the past 50 years, is disappearing faster than I think anyone imagined it would,” said Law.
She said she left the theme’s interpretation up to the photographers, who provided a vast array of what they view as “disappearing.”
Though the PhotoSummer collaboration focuses mainly on art showcasing New Mexico and its artists, she said for this show she wanted a world perspective. Some of the photos show scenes from New Mexico, but others were taken around the US and in other countries, like Iceland or in the African jungle.
Santa Fe artist David Saxe said his photo of a landscape mural he saw in Tucumcari was spur-of-the-moment and wasn’t meant to have a specific message. However, when he looked at it later, he said he realized the mural’s vast desert land is something that no longer exists.
Inside the shot is also a man and a car, which he said can symbolize the modern world as it moves along through a dwindling environment. The town of Tucumcari is an example of this phenomenon itself, he added, citing industrialization and the interstate passing by the town taking a toll.
“It’s really about time passing,” said Saxe. “When I was a kid, it was a different world I lived in. Now that I get older, I see a world where towns are empty and nobody connects with each other anymore.”
Another Santa Fe photographer, Mary Sloane, took a different approach. Unlike several of the photos submitted for the show, hers does not depict an environmental issue. Instead, she chose to focus on a world where technology is constantly changing and evolving. Her photo,
“Pay Phones,” was taken at a gas station in Cape Cod with two abandoned and nonfunctioning pay phones near the road.
To her, it reminded her that there is an entire generation, including her own children, which will never use pay phones, something she did often during her adolescence. She said these changes don’t necessarily depress her, but rather get her thinking about the world’s changes.
“There’s some real beauty in that, too, what’s changed and what’s left,” said Sloane.
Law said she doesn’t want people to be scared by what’s in the show, but hopes viewers will reflect on how their lives are impacted by the “broad spectrum” of issues the gallery displays.
“I don’t want people to be depressed, per se, but I’d like for it to inspire thought and hopefully some action, as well,” she added.