Colorado State University’s Hatton Gallery Features Exhibit on Â??photographs of Edward Ranney: Monuments and Landscapes of Ancient America’

The captivating work of internationally recognized landscape photographer Edward Ranney will be on display at Colorado State University’s Hatton Gallery from Jan. 30 through March 3. An opening reception for the exhibition will be Jan. 30 from 5-7 p.m. at the gallery in the Visual Arts Building on campus.

In addition, a lecture by Ranney will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Tues., Jan. 31, in Room F-101 Visual Arts Building. All events, including the exhibit, are free and open to the public.

Ranney’s work has been described as emotionally charged through the rendered tension between ruins emerging from the desert and the vast expanses of open spaces.

"The exhibit will feature 52 of Edward Ranney’s prints that survey his extraordinary career photographing pre-Columbian sites and architecture," said Linny Frickman, director of the Hatton Gallery. "Artifacts from the Maya, Inca and various Peruvian cultures will accompany the photos, which will include his more recent Andean desert project.

"This show will be of wide interest to people interested in art, Latin American studies, photography, archaeology and the beauty of landscapes and cultures throughout the world."  

Frickman added that the opening reception on Jan. 30 is in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Colorado State and with the Cnsul General del Per? en Denver.

Ranney was born in 1942 and grew up in Illinois. Educated at Yale University, he began making photographs during his college career while studying art history, Spanish and English literature. After graduating, he secured a Fulbright Fellowship for anthropological and literary fieldwork and traveled to Peru in the1960s to study the Quechua Indians in the Cuzco region. This initial visit developed into a lifelong fascination with archeological monuments and their relationship to landscape.

Ranney was first recognized for photographic studies including "Stonework of the Maya" (1974) and "Monuments of the Inca" (1982), substantial bodies of work devoted to pre-Columbian art and architecture and an understanding of the alliance between these monuments and their geographical surroundings.

In an interview in "View Camera," a journal of large-format photography, Ranney noted: "A place like Peru can have a romantic appeal, particularly in the highlands and places like Machu Picchu, which draws you and holds you there, not only because of the layering of history but also because of the evocative atmosphere of the light."

Ranney’s awards and grants include NEA grants (1974 and 1982), a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1977), and Fulbright Fellowships (1964 and 1993). His work is represented in public and private collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York and San Francisco; The Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe and Houston; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Other photographic books include "Heights of Machu Picchu" (1998) and "Prairie Passage" (1998).

For more details on the exhibit or lecture, contact Frickman at Linda.Frickman@colostate.edu or call 970-491-1989.