Photographs by Dr. James Hatley and Dave Ganoe on Exhibit in Atrium Room of Bellavance Honors Center, April 22-May 7

SALISBURY, MD--Two members of the University community are turning to photography in order to reflect on their involvement with the natural world. The show, "Waking to the Light," opens in the Atrium Room of the Bellavance Honors Center on Thursday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. The show, running through May 7, is open to the campus community Monday-Friday from 3-5 p.m.

Both Dave Ganoe and Dr. James Hatley are active hikers who have put together a show of selected photographs and writings to encourage discussion of how one becomes aware of the environment. While Hatleyâs photographs come from treks along the Appalachian Trail and in the wilderness areas of Montana, the particular series of photographs Ganoe is showing were taken of Walden Pond. In addition, Ganoeâs favorite quotations from Thoreau, as well as entries from Hatleyâs wilderness journals, will be placed in conjunction with the images of nature.

"Our intimacy with nature has been frittered away by our immersion in industrial society," Ganoe argued in his statement for the show. Ganoe and Hatley both look to the camera as a mode of reestablishing contact with natural things, although each has his particular style of working out that contact. And both hope to inspire others to cultivate their own awareness of things wild.

"This show is the outcome of our having spent a considerable amount of times in the woods and then finding ourselves wanting to share our enthusiasm with our neighbors," Hatley said. "We both think that there are a lot more like us out there in the community. We would like to begin a process where others who may not be artists in the narrow sense of that term might feel similarly inspired to share their photographs, writings or whatever in praise of nature."

The Honors House Atrium Room is a particularly apt location for the show, since it looks out on a Japanese garden constructed a year ago by Honors students under the direction of Les Lutz, the campus horticulturalist, as a way of expressing their appreciation of the natural world. The Bellavance Honors Center is located at 1122 Camden Avenue on the corner of Camden and Loblolly.

Ganoe, who has recently retired from his position as director of the Guerrieri Center, helped to establish the Algonquin Program in which older students from Salisbury State accompany incoming freshmen for a week-long canoeing trip in the wilderness. Hatley is an associate professor of philosophy and teaches environmental ethics. His current scholarly research includes a project on the ethical implications of predation, as well the role it pays in defining wilderness.