Following the retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Texas Tech University, the University of Oklahoma Press published in September 2016 a comprehensive monograph, Shifting Views and Changing Places, on Rick Dingus and his artwork. The Artist Printmaker/Photographer Research Collection (AP/RC) at the Museum of Texas Tech University has the largest singular collection of photographic works by Dingus and most of the images in this new publication are from that collection.
This publication explores in depth the artist’s persistent and evocative vision of landscapes, with a strong emphasis on the lands and cultures of the American West. Since the 1970s Dingus has photographed remote wilderness, rural settings, vernacular traces, urban environments, and ancient pathways. His images encourage thoughtfulness about what is observed and his observations expose a lifelong exploration of the intersections of time, place, culture, and environment.
In this new publication, Dingus discusses his creative process in practical and philosophical terms through brief opening passages and an interview with Peter S. Briggs, Curator of Art at the Museum of Texas Tech University. An introductory essay by Toby Jurovics considers Dingus’s oeuvre within the evolution of landscape photography from the nineteenth century to the present day—offering a view of the photographer’s art as “resilient enough to contain both empirical and metaphorical truth; the descriptive and the personal; the past and the present.” An essay by Shelley Armitage offers a more personal reflection on the experience of viewing the photographs. And art critic Lucy R. Lippard provides a chronology and sustained interpretation of Dingus’s work, with its emphasis on transformation and on “translating information across visual borders.”
Shifting Views and Changing Places is available from the University of Oklahoma Press.
- Lightning Snake Shadow, 1977-81; silver gelatin print with graphite
- Tertiary Conglomerates, Weber Valley (Witches Rocks #5), T.H. O’Sullivan, 1869, for the Rephotographic Survey Project, 1978
- Five Years After the Fire, Bandelier National Monument, NM, 1982-89; silver gelatin print with graphite
- Shadow Over Moaning Lake, 1991-92; chromogenic print with water-soluble wax and oil based pastel crayons
- Shade House Full of Light, 1988; silver gelatin print with graphite
- Lessons by the Campfire, 1987-88; silver gelatin print with graphite
- Movie Theater, Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center, WA, 1998-99; chromogenic print
- Tourists at Bonneville Dam, Columbia River, OR, 1998-99; chromogenic print
- Stump Shelter in a Clear Cut Area of Old Growth Forest, The Styx Valley of the Giants, Tasmania, Australia, 2005-07; chromogenic print
- Trail Head, Devil’s Tower National Monument, WY, 2005-07; chromogenic prints
- Wind Scored Tin near Lubbock, TX, 1995; chromogenic print with water-soluble wax and oil based pastel crayons
- Dust Storm, Lubbock, TX, 1995; chromogenic print with water-soluble wax and oil based pastel crayons
- Horse, Wheatland, NM, 2004-06; chromogenic print
- Elaborate ATM, Okie-Tex Star Party, Kenton, OK, 2013-15, pigment print; infrared sensor digital camera
- Silicon Valley (OAK>LAS>LBB), 2014-15, pigment print; infrared sensor digital camera