Great Plains Art Museum exhibits Michael Farrell's color photos

Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will present a new exhibition, “Westward Bound: Big Color Landscape Photographs,” by Michael Farrell. The exhibition will run Oct. 5 to Dec. 9 and the artist will be present for a First Friday reception 5-7 p.m. Oct. 5.

Michael Farrell has been practicing his fine art photography for more than 40 years, and his works are included in collections of the Museum of Nebraska Art, the Joslyn Art Museum, and the Great Plains Art Museum.  He holds a master’s degree from the Institute of Design at Chicago, and has been a resident of Lincoln since 1972.  In addition to being an artist, Farrell is television production manager for NET Television, where he has produced numerous documentaries about Nebraska and the Great Plains, and also an adjunct faculty member of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNL. 

The exhibition represents a turning point in Farrell’s artistic career: the shift from black and white to color.

“Although I had shot hundreds of thousands of feet of 16-millimeter color negative motion picture film during my years as a cinematographer, I had not explored color in any meaningful way in my personal photographic work,” said Farrell. Following his 2008 Great Plains Art Museum exhibition titled “Hinterlands,” Farrell experienced the desire to shift his process. “I decided to try two new things: I would now work in color and I would begin using an 8-by-10 (inch) negative and print larger image to take advantage of all the larger format offered.”

 “Michael Farrell is a precision technician when it comes to all aspects of landscape photography: from site composition to camera and darkroom process to final print,” Great Plains Art Museum Curator Amber Mohr said. “He has a high regard for the history and traditional craft of photography, so I was intrigued when he first told me he would be working in color and utilizing digital technology. However, he incorporated the newer technologies very selectively.

For Mike, every aspect of the process has to be optimal or he won’t integrate it. He’s still very much a traditional photographer, and the viewer is able to see the difference it makes in the final photographs. He honors every step of the process.”

The Great Plains Art Museum is open to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1:30-5 p.m. Sundays (closed Mondays, holiday weekends and between exhibitions). There is no admission charge. For more information, telephone 402-472-6220, e-mail gpac2@unl.edu, visit www.unl.edu/plains/gallery/gallery.shtml, or contact Mohr at 402-472-0599 or by e-mail at amohr2@unl.edu.