A Few Quick Announcements

Celebrating a unique icon of the Mojave Desert, my solo exhibition The Joshua Tree opens this Saturday, November 5, 2012, at the historic Kelso Depot in the Mojave National Preserve. I hope you can join me for the opening reception on Saturday from 2-4pm in the Desert Light Gallery. More info…

Speaking of my exhibition, The Joshua Tree, Ann Japenga has announced it along with a few nice words about my work at the California Desert Art website.

On October 21, I was interviewed and quoted in a Public News Service article (“Report: BLMs Smart Solar Approach Good for the West, with Two CA Exceptions“). Click here to read and/or listen to this piece.

Drivers Wanted

My photograph Drivers Wanted recently received a nomination in the Fine Art category in the 5th Annual Photography Masters Cup. According to PMC, 11,321 entries were received from 83 countries this year. Getting noticed in that big of a field is an honor in itself.

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

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On Exhibit: The Joshua Tree – Mojave National Preserve

I’m thrilled to announce my upcoming exhibition at the Mojave National Preserve, here in California’s Eastern Mojave Desert. This solo exhibition features my series The Joshua Tree, and opens on November 5, 2011 and runs through February 5, 2012. I’ll be showing approximately fifteen framed photographs in the Desert Light Gallery at the historic Kelso Depot, and invite you to the opening reception on Saturday November 5, from 2-4pm.

The Mojave National Preserve is vast, and at 1.6 million acres is the third largest unit of the National Park System in the contiguous United States. Singing sand dunes, volcanic cinder cones, Joshua tree forests, and seasonal carpets of wildflowers are all found in this incredibly spacious and under-visited park (shhhh!). A number of the Joshua tree photographs in the exhibition were made in the Preserve, which is also home to the largest Joshua tree forest known to man (Cima Dome).

Because this is a remote park with no nearby accommodations (Baker and Needles are nearest but may not suit everyone’s taste), I encourage you to stay, camp, and enjoy the Preserve for the entire weekend (make it longer!). [UPDATED Oct 3] If you’d like to camp, I’ll provide directions to the developed campgrounds and/or suggest premier open desert camping locations within the Preserve (the beauty of the CA desert: you can camp virtually anywhere!).

Please join me at the Kelso Depot on November 5 from 2-4pm – I hope to see you there!

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Tortoises Through the Lens

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) recently commissioned me to curate, print, and frame a wonderful exhibition entitled Tortoises Through the Lens. A community based conservation action project, Tortoises Through the Lens, works to educate and empower local high school students to learn about conservation through photography in the Mojave Desert. To raise awareness about the charismatic desert tortoise and to highlight the threats they are facing, the project is also publishing a Desert Tortoise Conservation photobook, which will be available in August 2010. By purchasing this inexpensive book, you are helping to save this important species, as all proceeds will be used to further desert tortoise conservation efforts.

From May 2 through August 7, 2010, the NPCA will feature a Tortoises Through the Lens photography exhibition that displays landscape, wildlife, and macro photography at the Desert Light Art Gallery inside the Historic Kelso Depot at Mojave National Preserve. The photos on display were taken by local high school students who explored the Mojave desert through the 18-month long Tortoises Through the Lens Community Action Project. Exhibit hours are 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily.

I am honored and excited to have worked with this exhibition and to help advance awareness and conservation for this imperiled and important species. I’m also thankful and grateful to my friend David Lamfrom of the NPCA, who requested my expertise in putting together this exhibition.

I hope you all get a chance to see and support this exhibition. Thanks for helping desert tortoises and the Mojave Desert!

You are visiting the blog of fine art photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

15th Anniversary Celebration of the California Desert Protection Act

Signed into law on October 31, 1994, the California Desert Protection Act designated 7.8 million acres of land as wilderness, changed areas previously designated as national monuments into Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks, and established Mojave National Preserve. This bill was the single largest land protection bill in the history of the lower 48!

Please join the National Park Service and the National Parks Conservation Association to celebrate this historic anniversary at Mojave National Preserve’s Kelso Depot Visitor Center in Kelso, California. Entertainment, education, food, and an incredible line-up of speakers will add to your enjoyment of our celebration, located at the Historic Kelso Depot in the heart of Mojave National Preserve. Only a few miles from the 700 foot tall Kelso Sand Dunes.

Visitor Center open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

* Activities begin at 10 a.m.
* Kelso is 34 miles south of I-15 at Baker on Kelbaker Road
* Celebration event at 1 p.m.
* Lunch concessions available

This event is free and open to the public!

For more information call 760-252-6100 or visit us online at www.nps.gov/moja

You can download a flyer for this event here.

You are visiting the blog of fine art photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.