The natural world around us, especially the realm of true Wilderness, has the beauty and power
to astound and move all of us. In an increasingly mechanized and alienating artificial environment
in which we spend so much of our time, any glimpse of the natural world acts as a soothing breath of
fresh air. My aim as a photographer is to impart a sense that there is a world of true Wilderness
that is out there, waiting to be experienced.
Unfortunately the natural world is under siege. It’s no longer responsible to escape the
pressures of our urban existence for a period and then turn our backs on a landscape that is threatened.
I feel strongly that wherever you experience Wilderness you need to help protect it just as it has helped
renew you. Whether you choose to help by joining a local organization, or a national one such as the
Sierra Club or Wilderness Society, or even if it’s gathering your friends to help pick up trash in
your favorite hiking locale, you MUST do something to help these endangered places.
I have been professionally photographing Wilderness since 1978. Though I have photographed many Wilderness
landscapes throughout North America, the emphasis of my work has been the canyons of Southern Utah. By focusing
for so long and hard on one region, I have been able to get into some truly remote areas. Some of my photographs
are of areas that no one on foot has seen for over 600 years. Being in a truly wild landscape is at the core of
what I’m trying to impart. At the same time I delight in challenging the viewer’s perspective on
size, color, and perspective itself.
Prior to 2015, all of these images were taken onto film (how quaint) in natural light without the use of colored filters.
Prior to 2008, my prints were archival, custom-printed Ilfochrome prints (commonly referred to as Cibachromes). These
prints have a depth and beauty that, to my eye, cannot be duplicated by inkjet printing and are not done
justice by your computer’s monitor. Sadly, in this digital age the Ilfochrome process has been discontinued (2011).
Since 2008 my images have been printed on Fuji Flex (which is the closest you can come to Cibachrome). I shot on slide film (both 35 mm and medium format) until 2015 when I switched to full frame digital.
My work has been published in a variety of books and journals including:
Wilderness at the Edge, by the Utah Wilderness Coalition
Canyon Country Bridges, by Fran Barnes
Utah’s Unprotected Wilderness, Gibbs Smith publisher
Canyoneering 2, by Steve Allen, University of Utah Press
High Country News
Utah Canyon Country Place Names, by Steve Allen
My work has been exhibited in many galleries around New England. These include, The DeCordova Museum, The New England School of Photography, Alpers Gallery, Sacramento Street Gallery, Oak Hill Gallery, Harvard’s Guttman Library, and Mass. Audubon’s Joppa Flats Gallery.
I travel throughout New England giving my “Endangered Canyons of Utah” slideshow. This details the myriad threats to our public lands in Utah and the citizens proposal to preserve over 9 million acres of these spectacular lands as permanent Wilderness. America’s Redrock Wilderness Act currently has over 90 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives and 18 in the Senate. If you are a member of a hiking club, church, photography club or environmental organization and would like me to present my show please contact me at the email listed above.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my work and are inspired to visit some Wilderness
and help protect it.
Contact me about prints at
Some of my favorite organizations
fighting for these lands are:
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Friends of Cedar Mesa
A new book by Steve Allen:
Utah's Canyon Country Place Names
book by Steve Allen
www.harveyhalpern.com
website by s. folias
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