VERVE Gallery of Photography is pleased to present The Anasazi Project, the celebration of a photographic book by the Santa Fe artists Joan Gentry and Don Kirby. The exhibition is a selection of 20 prints from the 60 images in the book. The book contains Don’s and Joan’s Anasazi Ruin and Rock Art photographs made over the past 20 years. The couple will sign books at the opening. Ann Weiler Walka wrote the forward and seven poems that commemorate photographs in the book. Nazraeli Press published the book.

The Anasazi Native Americans flourished in the American Southwest between 700 AD and 1300 AD. The range of their colonization spanned the Four-Corner area that includes Northwest New Mexico, Southeast Utah, Northeast Arizona, and Southwest Colorado. The Anasazi’s earliest artwork was fiber basketry crafted from indigenous plants. Toward the end of the period the Anasazi became known for their cliff dwellings and rock art. The Anasazi Project focuses on these magnificent structures and paintings in the remote sections of the Colorado Plateau.

Of the photographs, Ann Weiler Walka writes: “Perhaps you will be lulled into the Pueblo perception of a world where everything is alive and connected and filled with spirit, including you... Sitting with Joan and Don's photographs spread on my old library table, I marvel at the way they capture this perception. Much as an x-ray goes beyond the skin to capture bone structure, their visual language reveals a world beneath the surface world, a ground truth of energy gathered temporarily into form. In shades of silver and ebony, lightening flashes on cresting sandstone, flames leap, the deluge descends. The play of light and shadow, the tracings of water and wind offer metaphors for spirit, metamorphosis, migration. The photographs imply all this and more.”

Don Kirby - Anasazi Ruin 97191, Utah, 1997 17.75x10.25" Silver Gelatin, Ed Open

The Anasazi Project was sponsored by the New Mexico History Museum with support from the William and Salome Scanlan Foundation of San Antonio, Texas. Mary Anne Redding, the then Curator of Photography for the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, coordinated the design of the book.

Don Kirby received advanced degrees in mathematics and science. He began his career as an aerospace engineer, all the while an avid outdoorsman and photographer. His photography education began by taking workshops from Bruce Barnbaum, John Sexton and Ansel Adams. Once an accomplished large format photographer Don taught photographic workshops with Jay Dusard, Stu Levy, Bruce Barnbaum and Huntington Witherill. Don’s photographic career encompasses landscape-oriented work with a focus on the lands west of the 100th meridian. All of Don’s major bodies of work culminated in books published by Nazraeli Press including the Wheatcountry of the Northwestern United States and Grasslands, a monograph of the major Grasslands throughout the United States. Don's photographs have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and his photographs are included in the public collections of the George Eastman House; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Joy of Giving Something; the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; the Portland Art Museum; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the New Mexico History Museum.

Don Kirby - Anasazi Ruin 99124, AZ, 1999 12.5x18.25" Silver Gelatin, Ed Open

Joan Gentry began photographing as a youngster. She soon discovered the joy of printing black and white images in the darkroom. As part of her lifelong commitment to photography, she earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico in 1976 where she studied with a distinguished group of instructors, some of whom were: Beaumont Newhall, Tom Barrow, and Anne Noggle. Joan's work has been exhibited in California, New Mexico, Nebraska and Arkansas. Her photographs are included in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon and the New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Joan Gentry - Anasazi Ruin 18B4, M1R "Pico", Utah 1995 18.25x14" Silver Gelatin, Ed Open

Don Kirby and Joan Gentry are based in Santa Fe where they partner a photography workshop program. Moreover, they travel the country in pursuit of their photographic interests, as noted above, west of the 100th meridian.

Ann Weiler Walka is a writer and naturalist based in Flagstaff, Arizona. She writes poetry, stories and essays about the landscape, history, and people of the Colorado Plateau. Her writing is very descriptive, and it is often laced with scientific information, especially on the subjects of Ecology and Geology. She acquires most of her subject matter from 40 years worth of hiking, camping, backpacking, and river trips on the Colorado Plateau. She has written for various journals, and magazines. She has published two books: Walking the Unknown River (And Other Travels in Escalante Country) which is a book of poems and prose about the Escalante River, Glen Canyon, Navajo Mountain, and all of the country in between. Her other book is entitled, Waterlines: Journeys on a Desert River. It is a book of stories and poetry inspired by the landscape along the San Juan River. Ann is also a guide for the Museum of Northern Arizona’s Ventures program, which offers outdoor educational field trips throughout the Colorado Plateau.

Don Kirby - Anasazi Ruin, 92059, Utah, 1992 14x18.5" Silver Gelatin, Ed Open