We came west for a multitude of reasons: for adventure, for economic gain. Our quest over the last 200 years led to the discovery of a great expansive and rugged geography, of rich forests, and bountiful rivers to the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Photographers by their nature are inquisitive beings, seeking or creating worlds in which to tell or repeat a visual story…
The eight artists in the “Manifest Destiny” exhibition, Randi Berez, Claudio Cambon, Larry S. Clark, Nicholas Alan Cope, Amanda Friedman, Michael Kelley, Lisa Romerein and Todd Weaver, share interests not that dissimilar from explorers of the past. The romance of the West lingers still, fascinating us with its wildness, its opportunity, its modernism, light, water, open mindedness, creative ingenuity as well as with its depleted assets.