Blue Earth:
Art as Activism
On view: January 22 – February 28, 2010
Featuring: Rozarii Lynch, Heather McClintock, Daniel Beltra
This exhibition featuring three artists sponsored by the Blue Earth is focused on raising awareness of endangered cultures, threatened environments and social concerns. Daniel Beltra photographs the threats to the Amazon rainforest and inspires an appreciation of the plants, animals and people that depend on it. Heather McClintock’s project: The Innocent: Casualties of the Civil War in Northern Uganda is a collaboration of trust and discovery, from the vantage point of the children living in the war-torn region. Rozarii Lynch focuses on Life in Peril: Tanzanian Albino People. Lynch documents the atrocities currently being committed against albino people in Tanzania, and the social, health and economic issues they face.
Rozarii Lynch
Life in Peril: Tanzanian Albino People
Despite being a significant portion of the population, albino people in Tanzania are under- represented and largely misunderstood. Under the searing sun they suffer greatly – physically and socially. They face significant health problems such as poor vision and a high incidence of skin cancer. They also endure widespread discrimination, a lack of education, and limited financial and health resources. Compounding this misfortune, albino people in Tanzania are now commonly hunted, mutilated and murdered. Their body parts, believed by some people to have magical powers, are sold to witchdoctors who make “get rich quick” potions which are traded to those seeking fortune. By documenting the atrocities currently being committed against albino people in Tanzania, and, the social, health and economic issues they face in general, this project aims to raise international awareness and effect positive change for their situation.
Rozarii is a Seattle based freelance photographer. Born in Ireland, Rozarii’s passion for travel and world culture has taken her around the globe. Since graduating from Seattle Art Institute in 2002 Rozarii’s photography has been widely published. In 2006 Rozarii founded a photography forum called Decent Exposure with the aim of enabling aspiring photographers to develop their art. Rozarii’s travel photographs have been exhibited at Benaroya and McCaw Hall, and, at her studio in Seattle where she participated regularly in the city’s monthly Art Walk. www.rozariiphotography.com
Heather McClintock
The Innocent: Casualties of the Civil War in Northern Uganda
The Innocent is a collaboration of trust and discovery, from the vantage point of the children living in the war-torn region of northern Uganda. Despite living amidst conflict, these children are resilient enough to show the courage, strength of will, and hope that exists within the human spirit. For more than twenty-two years, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been engaged in an armed rebellion against the government’s military, the Ugandan Peoples Defense Force (UPDF). The Acholi tribe has been caught in the middle of this complex and barbaric civil war, in which countless numbers have been brutalized and abducted minors comprised almost 90% of the rebel soldiers. It is estimated that as many as 66,000 children have been abducted by the LRA, wrenched from their families and forced to become soldiers and sex slaves. The Acholi are a proud and gracious people who want nothing more than to be educated, sleep safely in their own homes, have food to eat and clothing on their backs, to live in peace; no different than you and I.
Raised on a dairy farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Heather McClintock received her B.A. in photography from New England College in N.H. and England, and then relocated to New York City to pursue her personal journey through prestigious commercial studios. Her Uganda work has garnered several awards and recognition, including most recently being selected for the prestigious Eddie Adam’s Barnstorm Workshop, awarded an artist’s sponsorship by Blue Earth Alliance and receiving the 2006 Center for Photographic Art Artist Project Award. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and several private collections. www.heathermcclintock.com
Daniel Beltra
Amazon: Forest at Risk
The ancient rainforest of the vast Amazon basin represents over half the world’s remaining tropical forests. This verdant wilderness is one of our richest ecosystems, harboring the greatest biodiversity on the planet. And, this forest is vital to the world’s atmospheric health as almost 25% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come directly from tropical forest clearance. Burning down the Amazon contributes significantly to global warming. Since 2001 Daniel has photographed the changing forest, witnessing both the worst drought in living memory and one of the river’s most extensive floods. He has documented the burning of thousands of acres of untouched rainforest. By continuing to document the threats to the forest’s wildlife and local inhabitants he presents a powerful argument for their protection.
Spanish born Daniel Beltrá is a world-renowned photographer living in Seattle, WA. His work has appeared in the most prominent international publications. Daniel brings the sensibility and craft of a news photographer to the fields of nature and the environment, making images, which inspire greater respect and conservation of our planet. Shown in large format these images have the beauty and composition of fine art while telling a vital story. In 2006 and 2007 Daniel was awarded at the World Press Photo and the China International Press Photo Contest, for his work on the Amazon drought. In 2008 he received the Global Vision Award from the Pictures of the Year International Competition. Daniel is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. On April 16, 2009 Daniel Beltrá won the Prince’s Rainforests Project Award. This Project, founded by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, recognizes the global role played by rainforests in climate change and aims to achieve consensus about how the rate of deforestation might be slowed and stopped. www.danielbeltra.com