NWC News Desk

Open Range Images opens new show with Friday, January 22, reception

Posted January 15, 2010
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POWELL, Wyo. - A tetrad of techniques is showcased in the next Open Range Images Gallery show opening Friday, Jan. 22, with a 4-8 p.m. reception.

Three Northwest College students, Tess Anderson, Susan Stone and Agata Stader, and Red Lodge photographer Anne Laird will present four approaches from across the photographic spectrum.

Anderson's contribution to the exhibit will be images she's recently completed for class assignments. If there's any overarching theme connecting her selections, it would be divergence. Her images range from a relatively straight forward table-top still life to an image designed to accompany a political article about Our Children's Earth. A journalist by training, Anderson was a hobby photographer for 12 years before enrolling in the NWC Photography Program last year. 

For this show, Stone selected images reflecting the Montana ranch life she lived for 16 years before enrolling in the NWC Photography Program. Presented mostly in black and white, her photographs range from stark winter scenes of cows in a blizzard to gentler landscapes with windmills and outhouses. Although relatively new to professional photography, Stone has received numerous accolades, most recently as one of 15 photographers selected for an Excellence Award in the premiere issue of Color magazine (from a pool of over 500 entries).

Susan Stone photo
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Stader, a Cody resident, finds her photographic inspiration in the western landscape that contrasts so dramatically from the scenery surrounding her native home in Warsaw, Poland. She holds a master's degree in business administration from a university in Poland, but found her all-business side surrendering to her creative impulses after moving to America-she spends a lot of her time painting and photographing now. Her landscape photos have a hand-painted look because of the high dynamic range technology she employs to capture extra detail in the highlights and shadows.

Agata Stader photo
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Laird's work focuses primarily on nature and wildlife. Her up-close images of flowers often present as color frame abstractions reminiscent of George O'Keeffe's flower paintings. Laird holds a bachelor's degree from the Western Design Institute at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco. Her work is published nationally in calendars, magazines, books and videos, and her fine-art prints are exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation.

 Anne Laird photo
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Open Range Images Gallery, located at 1201 Sheridan Ave., is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.

Open Range Images opens new show with Friday, January 22, reception