{"id":21690,"date":"2006-04-05T12:36:34","date_gmt":"2006-04-05T19:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=21690"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:57:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:57:49","slug":"collaborative-photo-exhibit-sheds-new-light-on-ancient-dwellings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/collaborative-photo-exhibit-sheds-new-light-on-ancient-dwellings\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaborative photo exhibit sheds new light on ancient dwellings"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Gene Balzer and Russ Gilbert first met in the classroom at Northern Arizona University, Balzer was teaching commercial photography and Gilbert was a promising art student. Little did they know they would forge a partnership lasting almost two decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photographs resulting from their 17-year collaboration are on display through Sept. 10 at the Museum of Northern Arizona.\u00a0Fragile Antiquities: Commemorating 100 Years of the Antiquities Act with Photography<\/em>, shows their ancestral Pueblo site photographs taken throughout the Colorado Plateau.<\/p>\n

After graduating from NAU in 1985, Gilbert joined Balzer on his sabbatical in 1988 photographing sites in Canyonlands National Park.<\/p>\n

“We both were inspired,” Gilbert said. “We talked about it and decided to concentrate on sites instead of landscapes.”<\/p>\n

Balzer said his interest in cultures and architecture is what struck him, adding that many of the sites he and Gilbert photographed have been closed for preservation or commercial reasons.<\/p>\n

“We realized that these sites needed to be documented before pot hunters and vandals ruined them,” Balzer said. “In Utah, people were digging up these sites with backhoes.”<\/p>\n

Gilbert added, “There was a time limit. We needed to do this quickly before the sites began to close.”<\/p>\n

The two artists have a mutually beneficial partnership. Balzer’s tight focus, with its sense of warmth and intense color contrasts nicely with Gilbert’s black-and-white panoramic views showing perspective and texture. The exhibit shows each artist’s perspective of the sites.<\/p>\n

“Our styles are so different that we don’t usually photograph the same stuff,” Balzer said.<\/p>\n

Balzer will be sharing his knowledge of photography in a photography tour April 21-23 at Mesa Verde National Park. The two friends also plan to continue their project with a trip to Canyon de Chelly National Monument.<\/p>\n

For information about the exhibit,\u00a0click here<\/a>. Information about Balzer’s photography tours can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Gene Balzer and Russ Gilbert first met in the classroom at Northern Arizona University, Balzer was teaching commercial photography and Gilbert was a promising art student. Little did they know they would forge a partnership lasting almost two decades. Photographs resulting from their 17-year collaboration are on display through Sept. 10 at the Museum…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":21691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}