< Back ​ The REDress Project Previous ​ Next

< Back ​ Joseph Labate: The Sawmill Fire The Sawmill Fire, originating ten miles southeast of Green Valley, AZ started on April 23, 2017. It was a human-caused fire that consumed 470,000 acres of tall grass, cacti and succulents, riparian woodland, mesquite and oak brush, oak woodland, pinyon and juniper. The fire was eventually contained in May, an effort that involved 800 personnel and cost 4.25 million dollars. I began photographing the landscape of the Sawmill Fire in early July. In that landscape both the destruction of the fire and the recovery from the fire’s damage are visible. The earliest photographs clearly show the extensive damage caused by the fire with just a hint of a recovery beginning. Just a few weeks later, fed by the heavy monsoon rains, green vegetation is abundant, traces of the fire disappearing, recovery (with scar) rapidly progressing. This continuing photographic project is not intended to tell or illustrate the story of the Sawmill Fire. Rather, it is about a landscape, a landscape for reflection. It is landscape as metaphor. Joseph Labate Tucson, AZ Joseph Labate is a Professor of Art in the School of Art at the University of Arizona and was the Chair of Photography from 1996 until 2014. Labate’s artwork and his teaching focus on the use of digital technology as applied to the medium of photography. Labate has a B.S. in engineering from Clarkson University, a B.F.A. in photography from Massachusetts College of Art and an M.F.A. in photography from the University of Arizona. Labate is a recipient of a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, an Artist’s Grant from the Contemporary Forum of the Phoenix Art Museum and an Artist’s Grant from Polaroid of Tokyo, Japan. He has exhibited and taught photography nationally and internationally. His work is in many private and public collections. Previous ​ Next

< Back ​ Effie! Plein Air Pioneer In the midst of the rough and tumble activities of the Arizona Territory mining camp at Pearce lived a young woman who would emerge as Arizona’s first nationally known female plein air impressionist landscape painter. For over 55 years, Effie Anderson Smith, also known as Mrs. A. Y. Smith, made her home in Cochise County and painted its desert and mountain vistas. The paintings she created between 1895 and 1950 depicting Cochise Stronghold, the Chiricahua Mountains, Cave Creek Canyon, and the Grand Canyon would eventually be seen in exhibits from Phoenix to Philadelphia, and were sought after by politicians and European nobility. This 150th birthday retrospective of 46 paintings wass the largest exhibit of Effie Anderson Smith paintings ever assembled in one place. It was also the first time in over 75 years (since 1942) that E.A. Smith's paintings have been exhibited in Tucson, the city which hosted her earliest major exhibits in the 1920s. Previous ​ Next

< Back ​ Vaquero & Charro: An Enduring Legacy Photographs by Cody Edison Vaquero and Charro: An Enduring Legacy, Photographs by Cody Edison and Artifacts from the Arizona Historical Society will explore the impact that Spanish traditions have had on Western horsemanship. Many customs, words, and traditions associated with the American West originated with the Vaqueros and Charros of Mexico. This legacy is presented through contemporary photographs of the Charros and Vaqueros of Southern California by Cody Edison and by historic artifacts dating to the mid 19th Century culled from the Arizona Historical Society. This exhibition is supported by a grant from the Arizona Humanities. Previous ​ Next

< Back ​ SNAP! Visualize History Through the Art of Vintage Ads! The art of print media is a direct “snapshot” of the practices of society. The good, the bad and the ugly. Walk down memory lane through vintage American ads spanning fifty years. Warning! Some images may depict graphic stereotypes that history would like to forget!​ Previous ​ Next

< Back ​ ​The Wayfinder's Dilemma: Landscape Photographs by Camden Hardy A faculty member at Southwest University of Visual Arts, Hardy explores the ways in which human beings interact with, and understand, their surroundings. On his work, Mr. Hardy states; "My artistic practice is driven by questions about the dissonance that occurs when we encounter information that contradicts our expectations, as well as our own agency in the construction of individual realities." Previous ​ Next