Summer art series: Jack Dykinga at Etherton Gallery

This week, we take a closer look at a piece in “Jack Dykinga: The Grand Canyon National Park (1919-2019),” which Etherton Gallery opened earlier this week. Dykinga was an Arizona Daily Star photographer before he left journalism to pursue fine art photography. The gallery’s Terry Etherton answers our questions.

Piece: “Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, Marble Canyon, North Canyon Confluence, 2015,” archival pigment print, 24 x 20 inches

Artist: Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Jack Dykinga has built a career that combines large format landscape photography and documentary photography. Dykinga’s photographs have been seen all over the world. In April 2010, the International League of Conservation Photographers selected Dykinga’s image, “Stone Canyon,” as one of the 40 best Nature Photographs of all time. In 2011, he was presented the Outstanding Photographer of the Year Award from the Nature Photographers of North America. Jack Dykinga was recently named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers by Outdoor Photography magazine. In 2017, he was the recipient of the North American Nature Photographers Association’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Style: Landscape photography.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Significance: Best known for his photographs for Arizona Highways and National Geographic, Jack Dykinga has spent his career advocating for the protection and conservation of wild spaces all over the world through his photographs, artist books, lectures, and his participation in Rapid Assessment Visual Expeditions, or RAVES, for the International League of Conservation Photographers. The exhibitions send teams of photographers all over the globe to highlight environmental degradation. Most recently, Dykinga supported the Grand Canyon National Trust and the Navajo Nation “Save the Confluence” campaign against developers who sought to build a casino and tram that would carry 10,000 people a day to the bottom of the canyon. “North Canyon, Confluence” is an overview of the North Canyon’s confluence with the Colorado River, and was one of the images used to illustrate the area at risk from this encroachment.

About this exhibit: The exhibition features a selection of photographs made across Grand Canyon National Park, and highlights Dykinga’s ability to find new ways of looking at a beloved subject. Believing that beauty can be a call to action, Jack Dykinga’s photographs celebrate the ecological diversity and majesty of the Grand Canyon, much as Ansel Adams’ images revealed the splendor of Yosemite National Park.

Where to See it: Through Sept. 14 at Etherton Gallery, 135 S. Sixth Ave. There is an opening reception and book signing with Dykinga 7-10 p.m. Saturday, June 22. The gallery is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; it will be closed July 2-8. For more information, call 624-7370 or visit ethertongallery.com.