It's not that difficult, finding beauty in a national park like Yosemite.
A war zone?
That's a whole different animal.
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Zack Frank, a photographer and former freelance photojournalist, will share his impressions from behind the camera lens of Iraq and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, interspersed with images from 30 of the United States' 58 national parks during a two-week show at the Crary Art Gallery in Warren titled, "The Appreciative Eye: War, Natural Disasters & National Parks."
The 60 photos, mostly 8x10s, are all in color - Frank's prefered medium.
Frank, who is from Sugar Grove, has had his work appear in National Geographic and Stars and Stripes.
"It was actually kind of word of mouth that we heard about him," said Crary board member Tom Paquette. "We'd heard that he'd been in National Geographic and some other things."
Paquette said the board approached Frank about possibly hosting one of his shows. The photographer submitted his portfolio, making such an impression that the board squeezed him into the gallery's schedule, despite being booked with events over the next year and a half.
"That's why it's a short show," Paquette said. "Normally they would run for a month. We wanted to get him in."
Frank, who shoots using Nikon cameras, said he's developed his own "odd style" of photography through his photojournalism experience, rather than being influenced by other photographers.
"It's an odd practice to put into nature photography or landscape photography," Frank said in a podcast interview posted on the Crary's website concerning his use of photojournalism techniques. "In that regard, I really haven't picked up anything from anybody."
Frank said he shoots 12 to 18 hours a day during a project and does extensive planning via Google Earth and other peoples' photos to determine where the light will be at locations where he wants to shoot.
"I prepare where the best situation would be by looking at where the lighting will be during a specific time during the day. It's very strategic for me. I do most of my national park photography as kind of a one-day project. Most people don't believe it after they see the photos because what would take someone like Ansel Adams weeks to shoot, I tend to shoot in six hours."
Like Adams, Frank said he would like to use his work to help improve and add to the nation's national park system.
In addition to his national park photos, Frank will put his war zone and disaster photos he took while still working as a freelance photojournalist on display at the Crary. He spent between seven and eight months in Iraq south of Baghdad and a month in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone.
"I love Iraq," Frank said. "It's beautiful, but it's also miserable. The culture there, it could use a lot less religion. I don't even know how to describe it."
Frank's photos will be on display at the Crary from Feb. 5 to Feb. 20. There will be an opening reception on Feb. 5 from noon till 4 p.m. that is open to the public.