Patricia Galagan
As a fine-art photographer, image-making is a language for me, a way of telling what I see. The challenge is to convey meaning and evoke feeling using light, form, shape, gesture, and of course, content. Often this process is intuitive, a search for something that is more expressible in images than in words.
I photograph many subjects but the ones that draw me back repeatedly have a connection to nature and the forces challenging it - especially climate change. I live in New Mexico, a living tableau of upheaval in its volcano-derived geology, frequent massive wildfires, and increasing drought. Here the land is constantly recovering and adapting. Some of my photography projects are meant to draw attention to the likely future of natural landscapes in increasingly inhospitable environments; others are meant to celebrate Nature’s ephemeral beauty.
Fire Ghosts
George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019
In 2011, The Las Conchas wildfire consumed 150,000 acres of forest in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. At the time, it was the state’s largest wildfire fire on record. My husband, Philip Metcalf (1942 - 2019), and I photographed the aftermath of the fire for several seasons and in 2019, published Fire Ghosts, a photography book about the destruction and regrowth of the forest and the implications for forests in the future. The book includes an introduction by Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art and essays by environmental author William de Buys, and forest ecologist Craig D. Allen.
“...the book speaks to a long, uncertain process of change that may or may not be healing. Fire Ghosts is a gripping poster for the Pyrocene.”
—Stephen J. Pyne, author of Between Two Fires; A Fire History of Contemporary America
Selected Exhibits
Fire Ghosts, Philip Metcalf and Patricia Galagan, photo-eye gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2019
Santa Fe Workshops, group show, Fototeca de Cuba, Havana, Cuba, 2017
Woman, group show, Edition One Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2016
Fire Season, group show, New Mexico Museum of Art, 2015
Three Visions of the Landscape, three artists, Bandelier National Monument, NM, 2015
Objects of Desire, solo show, Fotographika Gallery, Gland, Switzerland, 2014
Objects of Desire, solo show, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2014
The Green Fuse, solo show, photo-eye bookstore, Santa Fe, NM, 2013
InSight: Women’s Photography Exhibit, group shows, Expo New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 2012 and 2013
In the Mind’s Eye, group show, Albuquerque Photographers Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, 2011
Captivar La Luz, group show, Blue Star LAB Gallery, San Antonio, TX, 2010
Recognition
Artist in residence, Bandelier National Monument, 2015
Accepted into the Photo Archives, New Mexico History Museum, 2015
Winner, Spotlight Award, Black & White magazine Portfolio Contest, 2015
Winner of Photolucida's Critical Mass Solo Exhibition Award, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2013
Grand Prize, Santa Fe Photography Workshops Portrait Competition, 2012
Winner, Best in Show and Best Portrait, Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show, Albuquerque, NM, 2012