Desert landscapes are a common subject for photographers in the Southwest, but ASU graduate Richard Laugharn stands out from the crowd for his relationship with the plants he photographs.
Through next Tuesday, Laugharn's exhibit, "21 visits to the Sykes Crater Saguaro," will be at the Northlight Gallery, located at Matthews Hall.
The photos show the same saguaro cactus at different angles, at different times of day over the course of years.
"Something about them encourages you to see them as individuals," Laugharn, who graduated with a masters of arts in 1993, said about desert plants.
The saguaro is one of 80 plants that Laugharn visits periodically to photograph. Many of the plants are near campsites that he frequents, but they are not anything that an average visitor would notice.
"I'm modeling the kind of attention I think the landscape warrants," he said.
By revisiting the saguaro, Laugharn was able to see it in various types of weather and seasons.
"There are observable changes over time even though the saguaro hasn't grown much in the seven years I've been photographing it," he said. "The landscapes are dynamic when they can appear static."
Laugharn said he chose this project because plants are the most common and dynamic part of a desert landscape. While Sykes Crater hasn't changed in recent years, the saguaro has bloomed, survived a dry spell and reacted to the seasons. These changes are what interests Laugharn, who said he is still not finished photographing the saguaro.
The desert has always fascinated Laugharn, who has lived in Arizona for the last 20 years.
The quality of light, the plants and the solitude keep him going back.
"You can know you're alone. I can see for 20, 30, 40, 100 square miles and know that I'm the only one there," Laugharn said. "To me that's powerful."
When he started the project, Laugharn said he didn't know what to expect, though he knew it would be interesting.
"I didn't think of plants as having roots in time. They're really dynamic, much more so than I realized," Laugharn said.
Liz Allen, the director of the Northlight Gallery, said she had known of Laugharn for some time through his prior work with the gallery and the ASU Art Museum. Laugharn had previously leant part of his private photography collection to Northlight for an exhibit. The subject matter of the Sykes Crater saguaro photos led the gallery to exhibit them, Allen said.
"I'm interested in his intimate experience with the landscape," Allen said. "He's selling an experience as valuing the land."
Growing trends of environmentalism make the exhibit especially relevant.
"I think that's an important thing to look at right now when we're talking about the land and how we use it," Allen said.
Showing various types of photography has been part of Northlight's mission since ASU graduate students and faculty founded it in the 1970s.
"It is the mission of the gallery to show a broad spectrum of photography," Allen said.
Reach the reporter at: claudia.koerner@asu.edu.
