A new website is an online interpretation center and companion to a traveling photographic exhibition that examines loss, change, and abandonment in the American West through the lenses of photographers Daniel Cheek, Adam Jahiel, and Nolan Preece. With the online version of Great Basin Exteriors: A Photographic Survey, viewers are invited to join the conversation and share thoughts, reflections and feelings on the evocative images presented.

The vast and arid Great Basin covers most of Nevada, more than half of Utah and parts of California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming. The exhibit documents in three different photographic styles an environment that is changing or disappearing from the Western landscape.

Jahiel photographs cowboys in Northern Nevada and illustrates their life with stark clarity, using the platinum print. Cheek works with the spaciousness of the Great Basin using chromogenic photo paper. He includes small, man-made intrusions in his landscapes. Preece presents both black and white and color high quality images that look at the rustic backdrop as it diminishes with restoration and development across the Great Basin.

The new website at HYPERLINK "http://greatbasinexteriors.com/index.html"greatbasinexteriors.com was created by David Branby Advertising and supported with a grant from the Western States Arts Federation. It includes and interactive feature to allow viewers to share their impressions in forums moderated by the photographers.

Photo credit: Nolan Preece, Bodie Bullet holes,

CA, 1994, Digital Photograph, 21 inch x 24 inch

Great Basin Exteriors: A Photographic Survey is part of the Nevada Arts Council's Nevada Touring Initiative Traveling Exhibition Program. Designed to provide high-quality visual arts exhibits to communities throughout Nevada for an affordable fee, TEP features an array of subjects and art forms, ranging from traditional Washoe basketry to landscape painting and contemporary sculpture.

TEP sponsors receive installation and pick-up, insurance, publicity materials and gallery notes for each exhibit. Work is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Nevada State Legislature and Western States Arts Federation.

A catalogue for the exhibit is available for $15 from the Arts Council at (775) 687-6680. The 60-page full-color deluxe publication also includes an essay by noted art critic, Kirk Robertson.

The Nevada Arts Council, a division of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, is the agency charged with ensuring that state and national funds support cultural activity and encourage participation in the arts throughout Nevada.

In addition to providing hundreds of grants to arts and community-based organizations, schools, artists and local municipalities throughout the state, the Arts Council coordinates a variety of statewide programs and activities such as the annual Poetry Out Loud recitation competition for high-school aged students, traveling exhibits, artist residencies, workshops and cultural assessments. For more information, please visit the department’s web site at www.nevadaculture.org.

Exhibit Venues & Dates

Lake Tahoe Community College, The Haldan Art Gallery, South Lake Tahoe, CA
April 12 – June 15

St. George Art Museum, St. George, UT
June 20 – Sept. 8

Access more Nevada photographs through this Web link Hi Res Photos on Flickr