“From Here to the Horizon: Photographs in Honor of Barry Lopez,” 2023. Cover image © Mark Klett, “My Camera at the Head of Sinbad, San Rafael Swell, Utah,” 5/22/93, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

Barry Lopez (1945-2020) was an American author best known for his books and essays that focus on environmental concerns and the relationship between human cultures and nature. The descriptive nature of his words throughout his career have encouraged many to think and feel more deeply about connections between humans, non-humans, and the natural environment. His writings, spanning fifty years, have provided inspiration for many artists, and were particularly regarded by photographers.

From Here to the Horizon: Photographs in Honor of Barry Lopez is an exhibition catalogue that features photographs from The Home Ground Collection— works from fifty renown American landscape photographers honoring the life, vision, and legacy of Barry Lopez. The photographs are housed in the permanent collection of Sheldon Museum of Art.

The catalogue’s portfolio pairs an image by each photographer with an entry from Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape, the 2006 dictionary of American topography edited by Lopez and Debra Gwartney. Tracing the profile of our national landscape, their images find elegance and inspiration in the places we call home, sparking memories of the landscapes that shaped us or hope to see. The collection includes work by Robert Adams, Virginia Beahan, Barbara Bosworth, Lois Connor, Rick Dingus, Terry Evans, Frank Gohlke, Emmet Gowin, David T. Hanson, David Maisel, Laura McPhee, Mark Ruwedel, Joel Sternfeld, and over t thirty other artists.

Mark Klett, whose photographic work focuses on the western landscape and man’s interaction with it, has photographs included in the Home Ground Collection, including the cover image of the catalog. I found his response to a question regarding hope as it relates to our natural environment inspirational: “I feel that the act of looking and paying attention and even describing things that are incredibly beautiful can also be a way of achieving that (hope). I think there are different routes for getting there. One of the things that isn’t good is just giving into despair. I think if there is a call for action we can’t turn away. But there are many ways we can turn and embrace action.”

The catalogue is published by Sheldon Museum of Art and the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment, edited by Toby Jurovics, and distributed by Trinity University Press, 2023. Essay contributions are written by Debra Gwartney, Toby Jurovics, Robert Macfarland, and Wally Mason.

© Virginia Beahan, “17 Palms Oasis, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California,” 2013, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

Photographers: Robert Adams, Virginia Beahan, Marion Belanger, Michael Berman, Andrew Borowiec, Barbara Bosworth, Joann Brennan, Gregory Conniff, Linda Connor, Lois Conner , Thomas Joshua Cooper, Robert Dawson, Peter de Lory, Lucinda Devlin, Rick Dingus, Terry Evans, Lukas Felzmann, Steve Fitch, Frank Gohlke, Peter Goin, Emmet Gowin, Wayne Gudmundson, Owen Gump, David T. Hanson, Alex Harris, Allen Hess, Ron Jude, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Mark Klett, Stuart Klipper, Peter Latner, David Maisel, Laura McPhee, Andrew Moore, Eric Paddock, Mary Peck, Edward Ranney, Jeff Rich, Meghann Riepenhoff, Mark Ruwedel, Mike Smith, Joel Sternfeld, Martin Stupich, Willy Sutton, Bob Thall , Terry Toedtemeier, Geoff Winningham, Dennis Witmer, and William Wylie

Writers: Jeffery Renard Allen, Kim Barnes, Conger Beasley Jr., Lan Samantha Chang, Michael Collier, Elizabeth Cox, William deBuys, Pamela Frierson, Robert Hass, Patricia Hampl, Emily Hiestand, Linda Hogan, Barbara Kingsolver, William Kittredge, Gretchen Legler, Ellen Meloy, Robert Morgan, Antonya Nelson, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Eva Saulitis, Donna Seaman, Carolyn Servid, Kim Stafford, Arthur Sze, D. J. Waldie, Joy Williams, Terry Tempest Williams, and Larry Woiwod

© Barbara Bosworth, “Moon Rising, the Night the Bird Was Singing, Carlisle, Massachusetts,” 2006, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© Lucinda Devlin, “Lake Huron, 5-10-2011 8:43pm” from the series “Lake Pictures,” 2011, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© David Maisel, “Terminal Mirage 14,” 2003, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

From Here to the Horizon presents the work by fifty of America’s leading landscape photogra­phers assembled to honor the life and influence of Barry Lopez (1945–2020), winner of the National Book Award for Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape. Recognized for his “glittering, mica-like prose poetry,” Lopez was one of our most respected writers about humankind’s relationship with the natural world.

Selected in conversation with Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape, a “reader’s dictionary” of geographic terms Lopez compiled with Debra Gwartney, the photographs in this collection trace the profile of our national landscape, finding elegance and inspiration in the places we call home. Standing as a marker of the admiration and affection of Barry’s peers, From Here to the Horizon will spark the imagination of every reader—for places we remember, or hope to one day visit, or carry with us thanks to a carefully written verse or a well-made photograph.

From Here to the Horizon includes work by Robert Adams, Virginia Beahan, Barbara Bosworth, Lois Conner, Linda Connor, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Lucinda Devlin, Rick Dingus, Terry Evans, Frank Gohlke, Emmet Gowin, David T. Hanson, Mark Klett, David Maisel, Laura McPhee, Andrew Moore, Mary Peck, Edward Ranney, Mark Ruwedel, Joel Sternfeld and thirty other photographers, accompanied by essays from Debra Gwartney, Toby Jurovics, and Robert Macfarlane.

© Terry Evans, “Platte River, Nebraska,” 1990, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© Laura McPhee, “Irrigator’s Tarp Directing Water, Fourth of July Creek Ranch, Custer County, Idaho,” 2004, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© Bob Thall, “Chicago (Chicago River. View East from the roof of the IBM Building),” 1989, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© David T. Hanson, “Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond, Tailings Dam, and Leach Pads, Butte, Montana,” 1991, printed 2020, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© Mark Klett, “My Camera at the Head of Sinbad, San Rafael Swell, UT 5/22/93,” 1993, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© Dennis Witmer, “Hanging Valley, Brooks Range, Alaska,” 1996, printed 2005, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© Frank Gohlke, “Looking SE across Lahar (mud flow) — 6 miles SE of Mount St. Helen’s, Washington,” 1983, printed 1994, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.

© William Sutton, “Comb Ridge, Bureau of Land Management, Utah,” 1989, The Home Ground Collection: Gift of the artist in honor of Barry Lopez, Sheldon Museum of Art.