"NO ORDINARY LAND: ENCOUNTERS IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT"
1999-12-23 until 2000-02-27
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA, USA United States of America

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...Carnegie Museum of Natural History will present No Ordinary Land: Encounters in a Changing Environment, December 23 through February 27, 2000. The exhibit features 55 color photographs that explore the way people interact with the landscapes in which they live. The exhibit is free with museum admission. Through the photography of Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, No Ordinary Land: Encounters in a Changing Environment creates a powerful visual map of the ways the natural world shapes - and is reshaped by - human behavior. Photographing in locations as culturally diverse as Sri Lanka and Iceland, Costa Rica and New York, they have captured enduring moments where history, geology and myth coalesce.

Beahan and McPhee share a unique eye for the paradoxes inherent in the social landscape. In Italy, a hillside of prehistoric cave dwellings is being converted to modern apartments; in Hawaii, a garden of mangos and oranges are protected against insects by brown paper-bag jackets; in Iceland, children play in hot springs created by the runoff of a geothermal pumping station; in Las Vegas, an artificial volcano erupts every twenty minutes for the pleasure of tourists. Beahan and McPhee conceive their photographs as social geographies, challenging us to reimagine our relationship to nature and the landscape in which we live.

In 1987, Beahan and McPhee began photographing together, a rare collaborative process made possible through the use of a large-format camera. They have received support for their photography from numerous sources, including two fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim foundation and grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Polaroid Corporation, the English Speaking Union, and for No Ordinary Land, Rhett Turner and the Turner Foundation, Inc.

Special programming held in conjunction with this exhibit includes a symposium featuring three nature photographers from Western Pennsylvania. The Art of Nature Photography will be held on Saturday, February 19 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm in the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater. Cost of the symposium is $10 and $8 for Carnegie Members and students and the fee includes admission to the museum and exhibit.

No Ordinary Land: Encounters in a Changing Environment can be enjoyed during regular museum hours - Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm. The exhibit is free with museum admission at $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, and $4 for children ages 3 to 18 and full-time students with ID. Admission is free for children under age 3 and Carnegie members. Parking is available in the museum's six-level garage at Forbes Avenue and S. Craig Street.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Pennsylvania

Other Important Exhibitions in Pittsburgh