Wed 10/22 @ 6:30PM
Through his 50-year career as a photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum has been known for using his art to celebrate the wonder of nature and the unspoiled landscape, following in the footsteps of his mentor, note nature photographer Eliot Porter. He’s particularly known for his photography of the U.S.’s wildest state, Alaska, using his large-scale color photos as a tool to advocate for the protection of its wilderness.
His work is currently on view at the Akron Art Museum, in a show called Ordinary Miracles, through January 25, 2026. The show features his work from 1986-88, when he trained his camera on what was then the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (now Cuyahoga Valley National Park), deliberately depicting its landscape as generic and universal, what he calls “an icon of a landscape.”
Ketchum said in his book about the CVNRA project, “I am very concerned that photographers in America have created a subtly dangerous hierarchy that only champions the most obvious natural monuments and park locations—the most spectacular of our wildlands—at the expense of our more ‘ordinary’ landscapes. The long-term result of this kind of emphasis is that the public has ‘learned’ to appreciate and protect such sites specifically but sees the rest of our general landscape and its equally abundant resources as more expendable. We have become a nation of people who often travel great distances to have an intimate experience with the natural world while driving right by an equally important part of that natural world that is entirely overlooked.”
Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Cuyahoga Valley National Park is hosting a virtual talk with Ketchum at its Happy Days Lodge where he’ll talk about his work in a panel-style discussion with curator Wendy Earle and Cuyahoga Valley National Park staff.
Reserve free tickets here.