Hal
Gage is a photographer from Anchorage, Alaska. The above images
are from his project The Denali Series. In the mid-1990s,
Mr. Gage applied for and received a permit that allowed him unrestricted
travel throughout the areas that surround Alaska's Mt. McKinley.
Consequently, the artist had access to scenes off-limits to the
public. For the last four years, Mr. Gage has photographed this
landscape in ways utterly unlike the usual banal postcard and calendar
pictures of Denali. These silver gelatin prints not only provide
a portrait of a unique place over the passage of time -- they also
document a personal journal of the artist's emotions, a black and
white narrative of a photographer's joy in knowing a place intimately.
My
work with the landscape is the product of an intimate association
with a place, exploring it's many facets and its effect on me. Alfred
Stieglitz once said to make a portrait the photographer must start
at birth, photograph through out the subjects life to their death
and continue with their children. The Denali Series is like that,
a portrait over time of a place, but more it's a personal journal
of my feelings and emotions while in that landscape.
My affair with "the park" started in 1983. Each fall I
took advantage of the road opening to private vehicle travel to
experience the park. The 90 mile simple, sometimes one lane dirt
road is normally closed in the summer months to all but shuttle
busses. During that week or two between the park service winding
down for the season and the first snow was a small window of opportunity
to travel the road allowing me to get a sense of that incredible
landscape.
With the increase in visitors to the park came mounting pressure
on the parks resources. Today all access to the park is restricted
and highly regulated.
In the mid 90s I applied for and received a permit as an artist
to travel the park in a private vehicle without restriction. That
was the genesis for the Denali Series. Although Denali has been
photographed by wildlife and postcard scenery photographers nearly
to saturation, the park has never really been documented on an emotional
level, in black and white, from a contemporary point of view.
The 26 images you see assembled here are from the hundreds of negatives
taken over some four years in spring, in summer, and in autumn.
Each image is a tale of grays, a narrative of emotions in the spectrum
between black and white. Each print tells less about its content
than the reason I made the image. Like a finely crafted drawing
a well seen photograph is more about the object in front of you
and less about the subject. I make these prints to reflect my joy
of intimately knowing a place, allowing me to share in some small
way my inner world with others.
The Benham Gallery has available a limited number of prints by Hal
Gage. We believe art is best sold on a one-to-one basis and will
generally provide any reasonable information about the arist, including
the artist's resume, background, and the availability of books and
prints for sale. The Benham Gallery accepts most major payment types
and transactions can be carried out by e-mail, phone, mail, or better
yet - by stopping by in person so we can familiarize you with the
the work. The pictures on this site are no match compared to seeing
the real thing in person.
Visit Hal online at www.halgage.com.
