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Tuesday, February 25, 2003

By Leslie Hoffman

Forty years ago, "Silent Spring" changed the way we look at our environment. Its author, Rachel Carson -- born in Springdale and graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham College -- showed how the indiscriminate use of pesticides was harmful to more than insects.

	The Silver Eye Center for Photography at 1015 E. Carson St., South Side, is open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays it is open from noon to 9 p.m. For more information, call 412-431-1810 or visit http://www.silvereye.org.

Despite criticism from institutions with their own interests in mind, her book led to the outlaw of DDT and regulations on other chemical pesticides. It also led to a new awareness of how to live in the world around us.

At the Silver Eye Center for Photography's "Silent Spring: Silver Eye Honors Rachel Carson," members pay homage to the extraordinary author by presenting work in a vein reflective of Carson's attitude toward nature.

While the photographs examine our environment in different ways, trends emerge. Some magnify the details of nature while others scrutinize the effects humans have on their world and vice versa.

Claudia Giannini's "Skunk Cabbage" presents an amazing specimen up close, the plant's thick veins course through its elephantine leaves. Gerald Hare's "Giant Allium Design" captures the flower in such close-up it's difficult to determine what it is. It could be the underside of a golden jelly fish or even a snapshot of a supernova, if such a thing were possible. Illuminated from behind, and examined from an extremely personal angle, the image exceeds the subject matter.

A photograph by Sue Abramson provides an interesting study in contrasts on a wider scale with her black and white shot of a field and a line of trees, "Leaves and Branches."

The other set of photographs that work particularly well include those with people or evidence of people. Humans are, after all, part of nature, too.

In Jim Judkis' black and white "Tree With Cub Scouts." a wizened, knobby old tree dominates the foreground as it winds its way to the top of the forest canopy. Below, in a clearing, a large circle of little boys and a handful of adults join hands for some sort of game.

"Lawnwork" by Lynn Johnson shows mom and pop puffing their way around their middle class yard, shaping the earth where they live, as a little boy sits at the edge and a dog sniffs around.

Pamela Bryan's "Trampled Landscape, Central Pennsylvania" astounds with a sea of black multi-textured rubber tires covering the landscape.

Joe Seamans' "The Big Picture" offers a satiric view of our interaction with nature. Two young women sit in lawn chairs on the cement patio of a community pool; beach towels in tropical colors litter the rows of chairs. Behind them, a pine picket fence pinks its way across the photograph in a neatly jagged edge. Beyond the fence, rolling green forests give way to the cooling towers of a power plant, their billowing white clouds floating into the slate-blue sky.

Organized by freelance photographer, writer and naturalist Paul g. Wiegman, Silver Eye has compiled a show that not only raises an awareness of the environment, but which also raises an awareness of Carson -- but only an awareness. More about the author would have provided a stronger context.

Each photograph will be auctioned off during the show, and the proceeds will benefit two of the exhibit's collaborating organizations, the Rachel Carson Homestead and the Rachel Carson Institute.

Gallery events

In connection with "Silent Spring: Silver Eye Honors Rachel Carson," the following events are planned:

"The American Experience: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring," a one-hour video featuring the voice of Meryl Streep, 7 p.m. March 20. Free.

"Photographing Wild and Not So Wild Flowers," a Sierra Club presentation, 7:30 p.m. April 9. Free.

Matthew Craig, host of the 91.3 FM/WYEP show, "The Allegheny Front," will join others in reading from Rachel Carson's work for an Earth Day broadcast, 7 p.m. April 23. Members and students, $7; non-members, $10; reserved seating available.

Nature photography workshop with exhibit organizer Paul g. Wiegman, May 3 and 10. Limited to eight participants and advance registration is required. Members and students, $50; non-members, $75.

Photographer Tom Pawlesh will discuss his work with monarch butterflies tagged in Pleasant Hills and later found in Mexico, 7 p.m. May 15. Members and students, $7; non-members, $10; reserved seating.

Closing brunch reception May 31. Bidding on the exhibit's photographs closes at 11 a.m. Free for members, $5 for non-members.