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Yosemite People

  • Description
  • Specs
  • Schedule

Description

For the first time, a photographer is entering Yosemite as the WPA documentary photographers of the 1930s might, with a shifted priority on people rather than on nature.

Carol McCusker, Curator of Photography, The Harn Museum of Art
A person holds a garbage bag and picks up trash at the edge of a lake. Mountains are in the background.
A volunteer picks up trash at Lake Tenaya. Photograph by Jonas Kulikauskas.
A park ranger stands amongst trees. A bear skin is wrapped around his upper body.
Ranger Ben Cunningham-Summerfield gives a talk about bears with a bearskin wrapped around him. Photograph by Jonas Kulikauskas.
A server lays down a new white tablecloth in a hotel dining room with her back to the camera. She is in front of a window framed by curtains on either side. In the foreground is a table set for a meal.
A server lays out a fresh tablecloth in the Ahwahnee Hotel – a moment that inspired the Yosemite People project. Photograph by Jonas Kulikauskas.

At Yosemite National Park, more than five million annual visitors are supported by thousands of local rangers, workers, and volunteers. Through Yosemite People, a new traveling exhibit, the complex and nuanced relationships between people and Yosemite’s natural wonders come to life. Photographs from award-winning artist Jonas Kulikauskas – who brings his street photography sensibilities to the wilderness – reveal crowds clamoring to take the perfect selfie with Half Dome in the background and families cooling off in Tenaya Creek, while servers prep for diners at the Ahwahnee Hotel and rangers patrol the expansive Park. Traditions and history, too, are preserved through these images; Kulikauskas captures master basket weaver Julia Parker before her retirement, as well as Yosemite Valley Stables (where horseback riding tours are no longer allowed). Augmenting these images are text panels with oral histories from visitors to and workers in Yosemite, as well as historic images from Eadweard Muybridge, Ansel Adams, and Carleton Watkins to provide context for photography of the Park.

All together, the exhibit illustrates the ways in which people interact with natural resources and wilderness – even one as “pristine” as Yosemite National Park. Through this exhibit, your visitors will contemplate two essential questions: How can five million annual visitors experience Yosemite – and, by extension, our natural world – without harming it? How do our experiences with nature impact the way we understand ourselves?

A waterfall empties into a body of water. A woman stands on a rock near the bottom of the waterfall looking up.
Lower Yosemite Falls. Photograph by Jonas Kulikauskas.

Jonas Kulikauskas is an award-winning artist, photographer, and author, who has exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo museum show at the National Čiurlionis Gallery of Art, Lithuania, in 2012. Since 2002, Kulikauskas has been a faculty member at ArtCenter College of Design, where he received the Samsung Faculty Enrichment Grant for Yosemite People. Learn more about the project here, and read a review of the book here.

The exhibition’s themes include:

  • Environmental Impact
  • Preserving Legacy, Cultures, and Traditions
  • Leisure in the Park
  • Working and Living in Yosemite
  • Photography and its Impact on National Parks

This exhibit is also available as an online exhibit! Book the online exhibit as a stand-alone experience, or pair it with the physical exhibit when you host. Visit our online exhibits page to learn more.

Yosemite People is a traveling exhibition from Exhibit Envoy and photographer Jonas Kulikauskas.

Specs

Audience:
General
Rental Fee:
$2,500 + shipping for an 8-week booking
Size:
1,000 sq. ft.
Security:
Moderate
Installation Images:
View Here

Exhibit Components:

  • 42 framed photographs, largely measuring 28″W x 22″H
  • 4 framed replicas of historic photographs of Yosemite by Muybridge, Adams, Watkins, and others
  • Interpretive text panels, including an introduction, first-person stories from Yosemite rangers, and historic context for Yosemite photography
  • Hands-on objects related to rangers’ and visitors’ stories to inspire conversation
  • Gallery hardcover copy of Yosemite People, released in August 2017
  • Digital image files for large-scale projection
  • Exhibition press kit with digital images
  • Resources and programming suggestions

Schedule and Availability

Past Dates

June 14, 2020 – July 31, 2021
The California Museum, Sacramento, CA (extended)
March 13, 2022 – May 8, 2022
AVAILABLE
May 29, 2022 – July 24, 2022
La Quinta Museum, La Quinta, CA
August 14, 2022 – October 16, 2022
The Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA
November 6, 2022 – January 1, 2023
AVAILABLE
January 22, 2023 – March 19, 2023
AVAILABLE
April 9, 2023 – June 4, 2023
AVAILABLE
June 25, 2023 – August 20, 2023
AVAILABLE
September 10, 2023 – November 5, 2023
AVAILABLE
November 26, 2023 – January 21, 2024
AVAILABLE
February 18, 2024 – April 14, 2024
AVAILABLE
June 2, 2024 – August 18, 2024 (11 weeks)
Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum, Temple, TX
September 8, 2024 – November 3, 2024
AVAILABLE
November 24, 2024 – January 19, 2025
AVAILABLE

This show will travel beyond 2024! Contact us to discuss booking dates for 2025+.

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