Darcie Sternenberg, Earth Etchings : Emigrant Lake

January 5 – February 1, 2019
Artist Talk, Saturday, January 12, 3pm-4pm; Artist Reception 4pm-5:30pm.

Camerawork Gallery
301 N. Graham Street, Portland, OR 97227
Located in Lorenzen Conference Center – Legacy Emanuel Medical Center Campus.
9am – 6pm, Monday-Saturday, Sunday, 10am-4pm
Free off street parking available, Stair and elevator access, TriMet Routes 4, 24 and 44
www.TheCameraworkGallery.org
www.Facebook.com/cameraworkgallery
503-701-534
Event is free and open to the public.

Jacksonville, Oregon photographer, Darcie Sternenberg, notes, “In the series, Earth Etchings, I explored Emigrant Lake reservoir in southern Oregon during drought conditions over a 3-year period. At one point the water level was 10% of normal. Ironically, the drought was a “wet” one. Due to unusually warm winters, most of the precipitation fell as rain. Therefore, there was not a considerable visual change in the surrounding landscape but the reservoir, that relies on melting snowpack to sustain water levels, became a new world. One could think of it as an inverse oasis.

“The heat of summer created the cracked earth suggesting a displaced desert. There was almost a post-apocalyptic feel at this near barren reservoir and an overwhelming feeling of quiet and loneliness. Walking on the lakebed somehow felt surreal—as if it shouldn’t even be allowed. And the landscape was not static. With sequential modest filling and emptying of the reservoir, for irrigation needs, it continually changed. I felt compelled to return again and again.

“Initially conceived as a climate change documentary project, I found the more I was there the more I developed a fascination with the interplay of the forms created by the drought and the changing atmospheric conditions, at times with a magical effect. I began to see beauty amongst these earth etchings, and became more connected to the natural world than ever before.”

Darcie Sternenberg is a Southern Oregon-based B&W photographer who prefers to search for images in the everyday. For her, capturing these images involves a deliberate process of searching for and ultimately visualizing the familiar, forgotten or unnoticed in an extraordinary way. She earned a B.S. in Microbiology at Oregon State University and an M.D. at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After a number of years in private practice Nephrology, she left the world of science to pursue her passion and interest in art.

Sternenberg’s work has been included in group and 2-person exhibitions including: •What is the Question?, Rogue Art Gallery, Medford, OR. •Beauty in the Time of Climate Change, Hanson Howard Gallery, Ashland, OR. •On Iceland, Copper Country Art Gallery Hancock, MI.

Juried exhibitions: •The Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA • A Smith Gallery Johnson City, TX.
Published work includes: •Redwood Portraits, LensWork Sixes, 2016 •Divine Places, LensWork, 2017 •On Folded Earth portfolio, LensWork, 2014. •Earth Etchings – Emirgrant Lake, LensWork Magazine #135, April 2018. •Earth Etchings – Emigrant Lake was also selected as a PhotoLucidia 2018 Critical Mass finalist and received an Honorable Mention Award in the International Photography Awards— FIne Art Landscape category.

www.DarcieSternenberg.com