Nature photography offers slice of tranquility in Washington, D.C.
One of Guda's featured photographs. Photo by Nelson Guda.
Photographer Dr. Nelson Guda recalls driving more than 5,000 miles around the American west in search of roadless areas as part of his latest project. Hiking through the remote wilderness with a pack and 15 pounds of camera gear was the easy part. It was finding these roadless areas that was half the battle.
“It’s ironic, because I was looking at roadless areas,” says the Austin, Texas native whose exceptionally fine photographs of rugged, remote landscapes will fill Washington, D.C.’s Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and those who enter it with a sense of adventure.
The exhibit, titled “This Land is Our Land,” runs Feb. 23 - 27. Guda hopes the photographs will mold a pictorial landscape so vivid that people will seek these places out on their own. That personal contact, he knows from experience, is what can ignite a desire to protect these areas.
“People don’t care about saving places they are not aware of,” Guda says.
While conservation of the 60 million acres of roadless lands in the United States is widely the focus of this event, a buzz of adventure and exploration hangs about the exhibit as well.
One shot captures a cloud-swept peak. Another shows off a lake that reflects the sky in a otherworldly shade of blue. Yet another is a portrait of a proud native Alaskan standing on a razed patch of forest that she fought, but failed, to protect from development.
These images leave all but the most timid with the feeling that they don’t just want to visit these great places; they need to do so.
“What amazed me was the number of really stunning places out there,” says Guda, an artist and conservationist with a background in biology.
The areas people can see in the exhibit are part of the nearly 60 million acres of America’s unroaded forests . The lack of roads means that getting to these places oftentimes requires the use of backcountry roads and un-marked turn-offs, something that Guda ran into during his three and a half years traveling to and photographing these lands.
To make it easier on himself and other visitors, he created a Web site, roadlessland.org, which features maps, directions and photographs of the roadless areas.
“A lot of people have heard about [roadless areas] but no one could identify where these places are on a map,” Guda says.
While maps and directions to these areas can be greatly helpful, they will be useless if there are no roadless areas to be explored. These areas were under assault from the Bush administration for the past eight years, and now, Guda and conservation groups are pushing to ensure these areas will be around long after Guda’s photographs fade.
While in Washington, Guda will meet with policy makers and urge them to take action to preserve these lands. He may not have to speak much: He could simply pull out other photographs and point to a canary yellow aspen in the woods of New Mexico or a soft-pink sunset hovering on the green tundra of Washington.
See the exhibit:
This Land is Our Land
Feb. 23 – 27. Open 7. a.m. – 7 p.m.
Washington, D.C., Russell Senate Building Rotunda.
(Metro: Orange/Blue line to Capitol South stop)
Other photographers in the exhibit include Phil Borges, Tom Till, Hullihen Moore, and Jack Dykinga.
photo: One of Guda's featured photographs in the exhibit. Photo by Dr. Nelson Guda.
