Wawawai County Park Land Expo opens at MASC on October 20 – WSU Insider

An exhibit of “rephotographed” photos of close by Wawawai County Park by Washington State College Affiliate Professor of Advantageous Arts Dennis DeHart shall be on view at WSU’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Particular Collections through the spring semester. Titled “Rambles by means of the Wawawai: A Re-Images, Photographic Mission,” the exhibit opens with a reception from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, October 20 within the MASC foyer on the bottom flooring of the Terrell Library.

“Re-photography” is the combining of photos, from completely different time durations, of the identical place, in response to DeHart. Combos can vary from “informal snapshots to formal, researched photos with rigorous specificity,” he mentioned.

For his exhibition, DeHart chosen historic pictures from the MASC William D. Barkhuff Picture Collection and related them with modern photos of the Wawawai. Barkhuff enrolled at Washington State Faculty on opening day in 1892. Along with his curiosity in images, Barkhuff served as the primary editor of the varsity’s newspaper, then known as the “Faculty Document.”

There are various methods to attach and take part within the exhibit, DeHart mentioned, starting from aesthetics to historical past, expertise, environmental coverage, archives, and extra.

“Above all, I hope viewers may have an pleasing creative expertise that features many layers of multidisciplinary artistic scholarship,” he mentioned. “I additionally hope that viewers will come away with a greater understanding of the Wawawai and the way the realm, in addition to the Snake River, has been modified and altered over time.”

A Wawawai Story

Wawawai Touchdown is positioned alongside the rugged backside of Snake River Canyon on the southwest finish of the Palouse. The identify Wawawai (rhymes with Hawaii) comes from the time period Wawawa, which suggests “council land” for the Nez Percé and Palouse tribes. White settlers colonized the land within the 1870s, planting orchards and grazing cattle on the prairies over the next many years.

A small group existed all through the primary half of the twentieth century and included a publish workplace, college and touchdown stage. Within the Nineteen Sixties, work started to free the land from the Decrease Granite Dam, which was accomplished on February 15, 1975. The dam consequently created Decrease Granite Lake, flooding the unique land within the Wawawai space below greater than 80 ft of water.

Wawawai County Park opened in 1979 on the junction of Wawawai Creek and Decrease Granite Dam. The 49-acre park, managed by Whitman County Parks and Recreation, provides climbing and interpretive trails, tenting, public seashores, chook watching, and extra.

‘A meditation on the spot’

For 4 seasons, DeHart toured the Wawawai County Park space and surrounding areas, wandering west alongside the Snake River by way of railroad tracks to Decrease Granite Dam. It recorded distinct seasonal and geographic shifts “starting from sizzling, arid summer season wheatgrass to snowy, wintry hills. What stays fixed is the abundance of daylight dancing throughout Decrease Granite Lake.

Fond recollections embody scrambling throughout a area for a downed drone together with his son, and seeing the range and fantastic thing about wildlife on his excursions. “Every stroll is a form of journey, wherein I intuitively hint the panorama with my digicam,” DeHart mentioned. “The digicam invitations meditation on the spot, encouraging me to ponder the contours of the terrain as I transfer by means of the altering environment. Every go to reveals a special studying of the panorama, knowledgeable partly by the assessment and enhancing of photos made throughout earlier visits.

Aided by historic pictures and the recognized historical past of the Wawawai, DeHart mentioned he enjoys visualizing what the panorama appeared like earlier than the river plain flooded. “I additionally think about what the environment will seem like sooner or later when the dams are gone and the river is free and wild once more. It offers me hope.

“I developed sophisticated feelings for the Wawawai, concurrently celebrating the fantastic thing about the place whereas mourning the loss,” he mentioned.