Balancing Act
Benjamin Rusnak | Utah, United States
Photographer: Benjamin Rusnak
Exhibit Title: Balancing Act
Location: Utah, United States
Preparing for my artist-in-residency at Zion National Park, I faced a daunting challenge. Millions of visitors and iconic photographers have captured this extraordinary place. What could I offer to the visual conversation?
2016 is the centennial of the National Park Service, so I read the original congressional act that gave the NPS two conflicting mandates: “to conserve” and “to provide for the enjoyment of” our national treasures. For a century, the NPS has struggled with that balance between preservation and development.
To capture this delicate balancing act on film I created two bodies of work — one of natural beauty and the other of humans interacting with nature. Pairing images from each body of work, the diptych says something greater than either image could say alone.
These images from a single park reflect the universal challenge and necessity of both experiencing and protecting the natural world.
Benjamin Rusnak is a South Florida editorial and commercial photographer, who finds solace and strength in the canyons and deserts of the American West.
For 14 years he documented poverty in the Caribbean and Latin America for Food For The Poor, Inc., an international relief and development agency. Prior to that, he was a newspaper photojournalist for nearly 10 years.
His award-winning work has been recognized and exhibited internationally. He won the prestigious Gordon Parks Award in 2008 and he received InterAction's Effective Assistance Humanitarian Photography Award in 2010, among many other honors.His work is represented by ZUMA PRESS.
ben@benjaminrusnak.com
www.benjaminrusnak.com
0015612131517
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