For the week of December 24 - 30, 2003

Discovering Idaho
from far corners

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

The love of one’s home state can be an enduring one. It evolves from childhood through adulthood, tempered by memories and places yet unseen or explored.

Photo by Kirk Anderson

Wood River Valley photographer Kirk Anderson’s work captures his home state of Idaho. He shows that it’s still largely wild and untouched, from the flowing rivers and desert moonscapes to craggy mountain peaks and gentle farm land. It’s clearly a lasting love affair.

Anderson’s beautiful coffee table book, "Idaho Discovered" spans the state from one end to another, one idyllic setting to another.

His work is being featured at the Thomas Mangelsen’s Images of Nature Gallery on Main Street in Ketchum. On Saturday, Dec. 27, he will be signing his book during the Ketchum Gallery Walk from 6 to 9 p.m.

Published originally in 2000 by Stoecklein Publishing, the book has nearly 300 gorgeous photographs full of color, drama and vivid detail.

His resplendent images portray diverse landscapes, using the light and color of Idaho's natural scenery. Anderson, who has been photographing the state since 1974, is inspired by all elements of nature.

"To photograph these elements, I explore the prairies and backcountry, waiting for the raw materials of light, season and weather to work their magic," Anderson said. "I’m pretty much a purest, I don’t use colored filters. The colors represented in the photo are real."

In the late 1970s, Anderson studied with Boise State University Director of Arts Howard Duff before refining the technical side of his craft at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif.

His work has been featured in shows and juried exhibitions, including Jackson Hole, Wyo., the Lewis and Clark Center in Lewiston, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Carmel, Calif., and Westport, Conn.

In Ketchum his work can usually be seen at the Big Wood Artist’s Gallery, and the Kirk Anderson Gallery inside the Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey.

"This is a special holiday preview to show the new images," he said.

The evening at Images of Nature will also showcase more of the large Sun Valley images that Anderson has been recently working on.

"They invited me to do this showing and book signing to show more of a Sun Valley image, which they get a lot of calls for," Anderson said. As it happens his work suits the gallery’s sensibility.

"I have, in the past, stayed away from postcardy set ups. The things I’ve done are more moody, with design elements and weather situations."

In his on-going work, for instance, there is one image that is part of an up-coming multi-season sequence of Trail Creek.

Like gardens and life, the art of photography is beautifully realized by those with patience. Anderson is the epitome of that concept. Imagine that.

 

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.