Michael Light’s landscape photographs document-and thereby provoke-human dialogue with nature. His images are at once scathing and celebratory, exploring the complex and ever-evolving relationship between contemporary American culture and the environment. Concerned both with the politics of that relationship and the seductive power of landscapes, Light’s work deals in paradoxes that traverse the nebulous terrain where beauty, horror, wonder, and fear converge. The resulting large-format aerial images address themes of mapping, vertigo, geology, and human impact on the land. Like all of Light’s work, these images provide a beautiful yet thought-provoking glimpse into American traditions of expansion and exploration-the insatiable human need to pursue the unknown.
The Nevada Museum of Art gratefully acknowledges the Carol Franc Buck Foundation for support of the publication and the accompanying exhibition. Additional support provided by the City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission.
This exhibition is presented as part of the Art + Environment series, an initiative of the Nevada Museum of Art that brings community, artists, and scholars together to explore the interaction between people and their environments.