Your future, our focus
P O W E L L, W y o. - The Open Range Gallery in Cody starts off December with an opening reception at 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, highlighting an exhibit of photography by Elijah Cobb and three Northwest College students that will hang through Feb. 8.
Along with Cobb, a long-time Cody photographer, the reception features work by NWC students Barb Girard of Joliet, Mont., Jayne Johnson of Powell, and Ashley Schreinert of Dayton.
Cobb's work for the show, titled "White Flowers," looks at a variety of white flowers through the magic of strategically placed colored filters and multiple pulses of light. By keeping the camera lens open, he was able to flash multiple times, augmenting the effects of each color filter application. Cobb said he tries "to account for each of the major planes of the subject with different colors."
Calling himself an "old-school straight photographer," Cobb points out that his images are "created in the camera, not by darkroom or computer manipulations." He only uses darkroom and computer techniques to clean up and create the final print.
His photography training was accomplished primarily on the east coast at the Putney School, Beloit College, Boston Museum School and at the Visual Studies Workshop. He's worked at Photograph magazine and the Witkin Gallery in New York. In 1976, his was the first show exhibited in the student gallery of the International Center of Photography. His work has hung across the United States in rural western areas as well as in more cosmopolitan venues like Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. In Cody, he's part owner of Stone Soup Studios.
The three NWC students chose mostly landscapes and other outdoor images for the show.
Girard is a 1996 Red Lodge High School graduate. In addition to her landscapes and "western-feel outdoorsy" shots, she has also designed Christmas cards, which will be available for purchase in the gallery. Her after-graduation plans call for a move to the west coast to pursue fashion photography in Seattle, Portland or Vancouver, Canada.
Johnson wants to find a career in restoration and historical printing after graduating, and will include an example of hand printing (a historical printing technique) in the show. Even though she would like to stay in Wyoming after graduation, she's looking at a probable move to the east coast, and Boston in particular, to work in a museum or for a private collector.
Schreinert, a 2004 Sheridan High School graduate, will graduate from Northwest this December. Her contributions to the show reflect her love of nature but aren't really indicative of her future career plans, which will probably include a move to Minneapolis, Minn., to find a niche in the studio illustration field of photography.
The Open Range Gallery is operated by an association of local photographers and is open to emerging artists from the Northwest College Photography Program. Located at 1201 Sheridan Ave. in Cody, the gallery is open from 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.
Visitors to the Dec. 1 reception are invited to stop in the same evening at other participating galleries in the Cody Christmas Art Walk sponsored by First National Bank & Trust. Also featured in the art walk are Big Horn Galleries, Big Horn Print Gallery, Killian Gallery, Mountain Trails Gallery, Simpson Gallagher Gallery and Traces of Light.