James Joseph Foley - "The American West"

Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2005   2-4 p.m.
Music by pianist Ernie Woessner

The American West is more than a place; it is a part of our history, culture and our sense of who we are as people. It has become a place of myth: the land of wide open spaces, of big sky , of cowboys and indians, explorers, mountain men and gunmen, prospectors and pioneers.

This exhibit attempts, through photographs and an accompanying handout, to give a sense of the real West. It looks at the breadth of human history in the area, from Indian pueblos to Spanish colonial churches, to cattle ranches, ghost towns and today's growing cities. It also includes photographs of places of great natural beauty and wonder. Some are from Yellowstone and Yosemite and other well-known national parks, but the emphasis is on lesser-known areas: the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Death Valley, the red-rock country of Utah.

I" took the photographs during twelve journeys through the West between 1983 and 2004. Some of the photographs appeared in an exhibit at the South Shore Natural Science Center, Norwell in 2000 and others have been part of an exhibit at the John Curtis Public Library, Hanover in August, 2004.

James Joseph Foley, Jr. is a nature photographer who lives in Hingham, MA. He travels extensively He recently exhibited his Alaska photographs at the John Curtis Public Library in Hanover. He exhibited his Costa Rica photographs at the Hingham Public Library in May 2004, and his "African Safari" show at the Thomas Crane Library in Quincy in June 2004. His show, "The American West," recently was held at the library in Hanover.