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Photography show celebrated Utah’s imagery and those who capture it

Apr 03, 2018 03:36PM ● By Jana Klopsch

By Joshua Wood | [email protected]

  

Most Utah residents know about the diverse beauty found throughout the state, but many might not know about the great talent within their communities capturing that beauty. The 2018 Cottonwood Heights Photography Show gave professional and amateur photographers alike the opportunity to display their work at City Hall throughout the month of March

From stunning Utah landscapes to portraits, abstract images and much more, the show displayed a wide variety of stunning images. This year’s show featured 84 entries adorning the walls of City Hall. Visitors could take in expansive Utah landscapes, Italian architecture and a squirrel having a snack all in one section of the show. The diversity of subjects was complemented by the range of techniques used to depict them.

“Everybody’s been blown away just by the quality of the entries this year,” said Cottonwood Heights Arts Council member and event co-organizer Sheila Armstrong.

While source material came from all over the world, Utah’s diverse landscape was brought into sharp focus by participating photographers. The Wave in southern Utah, Silver Lake, aspens changing color and elusive wildlife all shared the spotlight.

Meanwhile, this year’s event saw a new and rare category of photographs. Several entries featured progressions of images of the total solar eclipse from August 2017. “Path of Totality” by Jason Carlton and “Eclipsing the Bend” by Raymond David received honorable mentions for their work.

The drive to capture images of the world around them is something that united the talented photographers entering the event.  Some keep a camera with them most of the time to photograph what they see, while others plan trips around their efforts. For many, it seems to be a blend of both approaches.

“I love capturing beauty where I see it,” said local photographer R. Spencer Robinson, who had multiple entries in the show and received an honorable mention for his peaceful photograph “Charon’s Dock.”

Experienced photographers had the opportunity to display their latest work, while those newer to the medium could join the community of local photographers.

“I started doing (photography) about 10 years ago, and I have this thing about doors,” said Deb Conover. “So I’ve traveled all over doing doors. I’ve probably got thousands of photos of doors.”

The photography show also featured young photographers, like Ian Hasebroock, who received an honorable mention for his photograph “Gasoline.” “I decided to use my sister’s camera because my brother and me saw some gasoline on the ground, and I decided to take it,” said Hasebroock.

Hailey Hite received the award for best photo by a youth for her photograph “Endless Honor.” The image demonstrates the power of perspective, depicting rows of sunlit headstones leading into the distance where the Washington Monument stands in view between trees in the mid-distance.

Youth photographers weren’t the only newcomers at the event. “I’ve been doing photography seriously for about 20 months,” said Bryan Anderson. “I started liking a lot of the metal prints I saw up at the Park City gallery, and I thought, ‘Well I want to do big metal prints.’ So I bought a camera for our family and got really into it.” Anderson’s work has paid off quickly as he won the award for best action/sports photograph with his “Light Trails on the S Curve.”

Photographs were on display in the main hall of Cottonwood Heights City Hall all through March. The awards ceremony took place on March 9. The award for Best in Show for a professional photographer went to Richard Ansley for his “Tunnel of Light.” Best in Show in the amateur category went to Raymond David for “Fire in the Sky.” Awards of Merit went to Preston Rowlette’s “A Night in Another World” and Kim Kimura’s “Majestic Reflection.”

Rowlette was also recognized in the nature category for his “Parables of Nature.” Daniel Phinney received Best Landscape honors for “A Day in the Life,” while Rick Kramer won Best Portrait for “Okay, Everyone Look at the Camera.” Brent Howcroft took home the award for Best Architecture Photography for his “LaCaille Restaurant,” and Kerry W. Jones was recognized in the abstract category for “Sugarhouse Textures III.”

Attendees of the awards night got to cast their votes for the People’s Choice Award. That honor went to Tessa Halley for “A Wish.” The Mayor’s Choice Award went to Rick Bergman for “Alstrom Point Sunrise.”

Cottonwood Heights City Hall will host the annual art show in fall 2018, while the photography show will return in early 2018.