tomdills
02-12-2009, 12:13 PM
Kathy & I are planning to make a trip to Asheville to see this exhibit, and I thought it might be a great excuse for a non-shooting field trip. Please let me know of your interest by replying to this forum or by sending me an e-mail (tomdills@earthlink.net). Based on responses I'll pick a date, probably a Saturday that does not interfere with the chapter calendar and we'll go. Anyone not able to go with the group may consider going on their own. I think it would be a worthwhile trip.
George Masa (1881 – 1933) was born Masahara Iizuka in Japan. At the age of 24, Iizuka came to the United States. In 1915, he came to Asheville where he first took a position with the Grove Park Inn and later worked at Biltmore Industries as a woodcarver. Iizuka had found a new life and a new name: George Masa. He started his photographic business by developing film for hotel guests, but quickly began taking his own photographs specializing in landscapes. His work grew and over time he operated under several business names and locations. Many of Masa’s photographs appeared in newspapers, magazines, postcards and promotional brochures and did much to popularize the region.
Masa came to love the mountains of Western North Carolina and worked tirelessly for their preservation at his own expense. Using his photographic equipment and an odometer he crafted from an old bicycle, Masa meticulously cataloged a significant number of peaks, the distances between them and the names given to them by the local settlers and the Cherokee. He was a friend of Horace Kephart and the two of them worked together to ensure that a large portion of the Great Smoky Mountains would be established as a national park. Masa also scouted and marked the entire North Carolina portion of the Appalachian Trail. In 1934, one year after Masa’s death, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially established. In 1961, Masa Knob, a peak of 5,685 feet in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was named in his honor.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Asheville Art Museum will present an exhibition examining the photography of Masa including his seminal images of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This exhibition will demonstrate why Masa has been called “the Ansel Adams of the Appalachian Mountains.”
Link to Asheville Art Museum page on the exhibit. (http://www.ashevilleart.org/current-exhibitions/mapping-the-mountains-the-photographs-of-george-2.html)
Please see later post - due to no other committed interest, I am officially canceling the outing. Kathy & I are going on our own as planned but will not be meeting at the CATS Park & Ride or following the itinerary described in the previous post.
George Masa (1881 – 1933) was born Masahara Iizuka in Japan. At the age of 24, Iizuka came to the United States. In 1915, he came to Asheville where he first took a position with the Grove Park Inn and later worked at Biltmore Industries as a woodcarver. Iizuka had found a new life and a new name: George Masa. He started his photographic business by developing film for hotel guests, but quickly began taking his own photographs specializing in landscapes. His work grew and over time he operated under several business names and locations. Many of Masa’s photographs appeared in newspapers, magazines, postcards and promotional brochures and did much to popularize the region.
Masa came to love the mountains of Western North Carolina and worked tirelessly for their preservation at his own expense. Using his photographic equipment and an odometer he crafted from an old bicycle, Masa meticulously cataloged a significant number of peaks, the distances between them and the names given to them by the local settlers and the Cherokee. He was a friend of Horace Kephart and the two of them worked together to ensure that a large portion of the Great Smoky Mountains would be established as a national park. Masa also scouted and marked the entire North Carolina portion of the Appalachian Trail. In 1934, one year after Masa’s death, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially established. In 1961, Masa Knob, a peak of 5,685 feet in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was named in his honor.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Asheville Art Museum will present an exhibition examining the photography of Masa including his seminal images of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This exhibition will demonstrate why Masa has been called “the Ansel Adams of the Appalachian Mountains.”
Link to Asheville Art Museum page on the exhibit. (http://www.ashevilleart.org/current-exhibitions/mapping-the-mountains-the-photographs-of-george-2.html)
Please see later post - due to no other committed interest, I am officially canceling the outing. Kathy & I are going on our own as planned but will not be meeting at the CATS Park & Ride or following the itinerary described in the previous post.