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January 18th 2007 • Printer version I am drawn by light,reflected and radiant light
in interaction with moisture,
stone and vegetation - Gary Tepfer
Love of the Land
 For the first time in 20 years, Eugene artist Gary Tepfer has put
together an all-Oregon exhibit of his landscape photographs.
The exhibit opened
at the University of Oregon School of Law on January 10 and will run
through May 31.
 Thirty-two photographs taken between 1985 and 2006 are on display
at the Knight Law Center's second floor gallery, 1515 Agate
Street in Eugene. The exhibit area is open every day
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Law professor Dominick Vetri, who chairs the art committee at the law school, said, "The exhibit tempts us to get outside and see the Oregon that lies beyond the urban core and comfort of a Starbucks shop." Well known in the Northwest and internationally for his photographs of
landscapes and the people who are part of them, Tepfer's work appears
in a number of public and private collections, among them the Brooklyn
Museum in New York, the State Museum of History in St. Petersburg,
Russia, and the Bibliothéque National in Paris.
Several of his photos -
including one of southeastern Oregon's Owyhee River now on exhibit -
are in the Dean's Collection at the law school.
"After more than 30 years of photographing the Oregon landscape, I
still find it challenging to work here," Tepfer said. "I am drawn to
two primary aspects of landscape. I seek to capture the thin traces of
human existence from a time when people lived lightly on the land.
"The preciousness of water in the Southwest and its delightful
abundance in the Northwest make me acutely aware of moisture as the
lifeblood of the land," Tepfer said.
Tepfer says he likes to return again and again to some of the same
places, and the exhibit shows the low elevation forest near Eugene in
every season - towering firs with a dusting of snow, brilliant red vine
maple in fall, quiet summer creeks. A powerful portrait of a
steely Fall Creek in full torrent makes him wistful. It was taken in
1989, before the disastrous forest fire in July 2003 that destroyed old
growth forest, trails, and campgrounds in a popular recreation area 25
miles from Eugene.
"I thought about taking some new photos for the exhibit but that spot is just
too ugly now. I couldn't do it, " Tepfer said.
The photographs were taken on Ektachrome film using medium and large
format cameras. The transparencies are printed directly on cibachrome
photographic paper.
They are available for purchase through White Lotus
Gallery , 767 Willamette Street in Eugene, or
directly from the artist at (541) 344-3497.
-Eliza Schmidkunz
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