The exhibit features 33 color prints, four informational
panels and a framed poster by artist-photographer Anne Heimann. The exhibit features 33 color prints, four informational
panels and a framed poster by artist-photographer Anne Heimann. The exhibit is free with
museum admission.
In Life on the Edge, Heimann explores what naturalist Rachel Carson called the primeval
meeting place of Earth and water: the precarious edge where the land meets the sea. Her
photographs range from scenics to close-ups, portraits, and textures of the immense variety
of animals and plants that live in these intertidal communities. Photographed throughout
North America, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, the images include both the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans.
A series called Eight Edges consists of eight shores – from sheer cliffs dropping 4,000 feet
into the ocean on Kauai's Na Pali Coast to a shimmering blue glacier on Alaska's edge. Splash
zone plants hugging rocky shores and wind-sculpted trees cling to rugged cliffs. Close-ups of
plants and animals reveal the mostly hidden world of lower intertidal zones: sea stars and
anemones anchored to rocks; jungles of algae, rockweeds, and kelp. Other denicens of the
shore include endangered Steller sea lions basking on a rock, dense flocks of shorebirds
forming an avian wave, and seabirds that nest by the thousands on narrow ledges high above
the ocean.
The exhibit explains the complex interrelationships of Life on the Edge: the intertidal zones
and their inhabitants; the different saltwater shores: from placid bays to windswept rocks of
ancient seas, studded with fossils 620 million years old, and the importance of protecting
these fragile worlds and the highly adapted animals and plants that live there.
This has been an exciting but difficult show to put together, Heimann says. I am constantly
astonished at the complexity and the abundance of life in these ever-changing communities
that exist where the land and the sea meet.
It is easy to look, but not necessarily to see. By isolating images and specific scenes in my
photographs, my hope is that viewers will become more aware of the amazing variety, beauty,
and importance of this fragile edge.
Anne Heimann's work has exhibited widely in art and natural history museums, galleries,
nature centers and aquariums. Her photographs have also appeared in numerous nature
publications and is part of permanent exhibits both here and abroad.
Life on the Edge is the third in her ongoing environmental photo series of endangered and
threatened species and ecosystems.
Life on the Edge can be enjoyed Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and
Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 10 through August 28.
Closed Independence Day. Museum admission is $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, $4 for
children ages 3-18 and full-time students with ID, and free to children under age 3 and
Carnegie members. Convenient visitor parking is available in the museum's six-level garage
at Forbes Avenue and S. Craig Street. For more information, call (412) 622-3131 or visit the
museum's Web site at www.CarnegieMuseums.org/cmnh.
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