Opening Reception
Thursday, October 17th at 2pm in Knight 121A
The artist will be present. Coffee and foodstuff provided.
About the Work
“Cool Birds highlights photographs of birds that I have seen from around the globe including Canada, Panama, South Africa, Thailand, and the U.S.A. The closest one, a yellow-rumped warbler, is from the UO campus. They are a subset of probably thousands of avian photographs I have taken, but stand out to me for one reason or another relating to bird behavior. In particularly, my interest was to select photographs that have some connection to conservation biology. Several highlight endangered species and/or species that are part of research projects. These include the bald eagle (now off the U.S. endangered species list), the California condor (critically endangered), the Canda jay (Note the identification bands), the southern ground hornbill (vulnerable), and the tufted puffins (Oregon Conservation Strategy Species) from just up the coast. One photograph that didn’t make the cut was one of an endangered green peacock showing off to several green peafowl. It is found only in a few areas of Cambodia and Thailand and is easily identified by its green instead of blue head and neck. It, however, looks like its blue brethren and the picture seemed otherwise too commonplace.
I initially selected fifty photographs and then had my colleagues here within the library whittle them down to the twenty or so current photographs through two rounds of filtering. I feel this is an important process for creating a successful exhibit. A photographer can latch on to crappy boring images just because of the experience it took to get the picture, something the viewer can’t share in. I recently photographed a marbled murrelet, an endangered bird on the Oregon Coast. Quality-wise, the picture is nothing special and somewhat blurry and few people would likely care about it. However, I am still giddy I got the image of this rare bird!” – Dean Walton
White Pelicans – Kirk Pond, Oregon – 2023
About the Artist: Dean Walton
Dean Walton is a past conservation ecologist. He was hooked by fieldwork when his fourth-grade teacher wheeled a TV set into the classroom to watch a special on Jane Goodall and the chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania. And, to this day, no one has been a stronger role model for him. In high school he branched out into photography and set up a darkroom where he printed black and white images and developed ektachrome color slide film. A few years later at American University, he had his first gallery showing. Although his degrees are in biology, he is also just an art history class away from an art degree. His photographs have been published on the websites of Science, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Wired, NPR, OPB, and Ms. Magazine and many government, news, and conservation groups here and overseas. Parenthood later in life brought him into the library where he could be home and watch his daughter grow up.