Press Release
Price, Utah – The Utah landscapes and night sky photography of USU Eastern Anatomy Professor Tyson Chappell, officially opens fall semester at Gallery East. Titled The 2nd Law (of Thermodynamics): Order from Chaos, the gallery exhibit is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. September 5-30 and is located in the Central Instructional Building.
It was only relatively recently that Chappell took up photography as a hobby. As a self-taught artist, he feels no obligation to meet professional photographic standards. “My motivations when photographing are purely personal, meaning that since this is not a full-time job for me, I am under no pressure to produce anything except for what pleases me personally,” he said. “Also, since I have absolutely no formal training in photography, I am under no pressure or constraints to follow any particular guidelines or rules.”
It also comes as no surprise that Chappell is interested in photographing nature. Most of his photographs have to do with the picturesque Utah landscape or the immensity of space. “To me, photography is about capturing a small piece of the beautiful and exquisite natural world. Nature and science, physics, chemistry and biology are all immensely poetic. Photography allows me to capture the ‘magic’ of the purely natural world be it plants, animals, rocks or space above.”
In 2008, Chappell was hired at USU Eastern to teach anatomy and physiology, but his interest in photography was sparked at the birth of his daughter in 2002. He began his photographic hobby using a Sony Coolpix, a three-megapixel camera to document travels and family events.
He realized that a better understanding of photography would be helpful in his graduate school studies. He used his growing understanding of photography to take digital images of brains he was studying in his neuroscience doctorate program in Memphis, Tenn.
In his exhibit, Chappell pays tribute to the natural word around him. His landscapes and night photography celebrate the grandeur of the Utah outdoors. He said that he is incredibly grateful to be able to live in such a gorgeous area with such dark and perfect skies found in Utah as well as such amazing national parks that are so close to Price, Utah.
Chappell will be at Gallery East for a reception and gallery talk on Friday, Sept. 9 from 6 -8 p.m. Students, faculty, staff and the public are invited. Entrance into the gallery as well as the reception is free and open to the public during the academic year.
Any questions can be answered by Noel Carmack, Gallery East curator, at (435) 613-5241 or noel.carmack@usu.edu.
