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Path of the Fox, Platinum/Palladium Print, 20x16" Image, 3/25, $2,400–Beth Moon

Juliane Worthington
photo-eye Gallery Associate

We are proud to welcome Juliane Worthington to the photo-eye family as our new Gallery Associate. Juliane is a freelance writer and editor, paper artist, and mother of three. She was born and raised in Upstate, NY, has spent the last twenty years traveling and living in various parts of the United States and overseas, and now happily calls Santa Fe, NM home. Some of her favorite artists at photo-eye Gallery are Maggie Taylor, Michael Kenna, Carla Van De Puttelaar, and Beth Moon. As an introduction, we asked Juliane to write about one of her favorite images, The Path of the Fox, from our current exhibition Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms.

"In Native American culture the fox is a spirit animal who appears when a person is in need of determination. When I made the decision last spring to sell my hobby farm in Upstate New York and move to Santa Fe to pursue a career in art, the fox began to show up as a guide for me along the way. When I walked into the vaulted, white, open space of photo-eye Gallery I was immediately drawn to The Path of the Fox, by Beth Moon.

Moon captures the emotion of what it feels like to walk the path of life with exhausted perseverance, determination strapped to our backs. We feel lifeless in the struggle to find our purpose at times. We sit down in quiet places to rest, but the mission to survive is firm in our hearts. Even as we breathe through these laborious experiences, our faces still look to the future with a somber, resilient hope.

What does it feel like to persist until the end? It takes bravery and courage to keep going. Art is a portal to another dimension of connection. Moon’s image will continue, for an unknowable amount of time, to reach out to others like me looking for some sign they’re in the right place. It's proof there’s a sort of magic that weaves itself through photographs and sculpture, through the words, mouths and hands of artists willing to listen. The Path of the Fox is evidence for me I'm not alone. I'm connected to the whole, and with determination, my dreams can come true."

– Juliane Worthington

The Path of the Fox is an image from Beth Moon's Thy Kingdom Come, a body of work focusing "on totem-like beliefs and practices connecting man to animal." In this semi-narrative project, Moon uses the ancient idea of animal spirit guides to imagine "a twilight world, united under a banner of ritual, we see evidence of devotion where all things are connected."

» View Thy Kingdom Come

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms

On view through November 24th, 2018

» View the Work

» Read Anne Kelly's Interview with Beth Moon

» Behind the Photo with Beth Moon

» View Our Favorites

photo-eye Gallery
541 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, Nm 87501
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Kapok, Platinum/Palladium Print 22x30" Image,8/25, $3,200

Portraits of Time, one of the four projects by Beth Moon in our Ancient Kingdoms exhibition, is a study of trees and time. According to Moon in her project statement, the "evidence of time is revealed in the furrowed bark of an ancient tree–gnarled, crooked, and beautiful." For Moon, Portraits of Time is a record of adaptation and appreciation referring to her tree images also as "portraits of change" and "portraits of survival." Photography is a means to preserve and share the stories of these trees, to showcase their grand and sturdy character, as well as express her affection. She states, "I am not interested in simply documenting, but instead, I try to record the passion that I feel towards the subject when I take the photograph." We find the images from Moon's Portraits of Time series simply captivating and are proud to have them included in Ancient Kingdoms.

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms, is on view at photo-eye Gallery through Saturday, November 24, 2018.

Rilke's Bayon, Platinum/Palladium Print, 30x22" Image, 3/25, $3,200

"I have a great appreciation for the natural world, so perhaps it is this emotion that I am trying to capture and share. When I began to take tree portraits I consciously tried to show a pristine side of nature without any signs of man. But a year or so into the project, I realized I wasn’t telling the whole story and began to include trees that had doors that were built into the trunk or wooden props that held up ancient branches.

What I find interesting is the effect that time has on nature, be it the age of old trees, or how evolution turned a simple leaf into a container that could catch and digest insects, creating carnivorous plants. The aging process of trees is especially interesting to me. For example, trees often hollow out in old age, but then they send an aerial root down the center and the tree begins to grow from the inside out! A brilliant survival tactic.

As a child, I was outdoors from dawn until bedtime and playing in trees was a big part of my day. There were many trees in my neighborhood that were just right for climbing. They made excellent hiding places when playing hide and seek and sitting up on one of the branches was an ideal way to view what was going on below. The world can look different from that vantage point! So, trees were a natural subject choice for me, but I wanted to find the oldest ones because I was interested in their age and their strategies for survival." – Beth Moon (an excerpt from our 2018 Interview with the Artist)

Avenue of Baobabs, Platinum/Palladium Print, 30x40" Image, 5/5, $16,000

» View the full Portraits of Time portfolio

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms

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Odin's Cove #7, Platinum/Palladium Print, 11x14" Image, Edition of 9, $2400

Beth Moon's exhibition Ancient Kingdoms, currently on view at photo-eye Gallery, explores themes of resilience and survival while exploring Moon's fascination with time and humanity's relationship with nature. Moon's work often evokes a sense of wistful wonder, and her series Odin's Cove, one of four projects featured in Ancient Kingdoms, is a perfect example of this expression. In Odin's Cove, Moon records the activities of a pair of ravens who inhabit a portion of the California coast. Through the series of images, Moon is able to capture not only the ravens' relationship to each other but her growing friendship with the pair over time. The result is a captivating body of work.

For additional insight into Odin's Cove, we have included a few statements by Beth Moon about how the series was made and her feelings about the project. Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms remains on view at photo-eye Gallery through Saturday, November 24, 2018.

Odin's Cove #3, Platinum/Palladium Print, 14x11" Image, Edition of 9, $2400

"Odin’s Cove is about a sense of place. It is a celebration of the beauty of nature in a visually stimulating landscape where untamed bramble and ivy suggest ancient origins. Where a regenerative view of the earth can be found, in the lush cliffs that gently slope to the sea, where music can be heard in the beating of a raven’s wing.

Odin's Cove #14, Platinum/Palladium Print,
11x14" Image, Edition of 9, $2400

This project evolved from a series of trips to a very special part of the California coastline where I developed what I can only call a friendship with a pair of ravens. Over a three year period, I made many trips to this unique area and as my relationship with the ravens grew – they taught me many things about their lives and personalities. Part pirate, part prophet, makers of magic and mischief, their throaty calls can be heard echoing through these hills. This series portrays their trust in me, their loyalty to each other, the territory they rule, and their life in the wild.

I started photographing ravens in 2010, which I titled Odin’s Cove. I first noticed the pair at the seaside in northern California upon a ledge, watching me. Fascinated by their behavior, I found myself watching their movements the entire afternoon.

Odin's Cove #9, Platinum/Palladium Print,
11x14" Image, AP, $5400

A few weeks later, I returned to the sea and to my surprise I found the birds in the same place. I returned many times over the next three years to visit the birds, and I believed they recognized me, often flying down to greet me upon my arrival. I think the birds just got used to me being there and I was careful not to intrude on their space.

I began to take pictures of the birds without any clear purpose. It just became part of my experience. It was when I happen to recall a mythological play I had once seen about the Norse god Odin that the title hit me. Odin had two ravens that flew across the land daily to keep him informed of events around the world.

The title seemed to be the structure needed and appeared to speak not only about the birds, but the place itself, and rounded all the elements together in my mind for a photographic series. Many aspects of this experience were unexpected, but none so much as the bond that I developed with these birds over time." – Beth Moon

» View the Full Odin's Cove Portfolio

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All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms

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Literary Chickens. Photographs by Beth Moon. Afterword by Jane Goodall. Commentary by Collier Brown and Melissa Caughey. Foreword by Isabella Rossellini. Abbeville Press, Jackson, 2018. 144 pp., 9x11¼".
Signed Hardcover: $50.00

Alongside our current exhibition, Ancient Kingdoms, Beth Moon is preparing to release her fifth monograph, Literary Chickens published by Abbeville Press this month. Literary Chickens features work from Moon's series Augurs and Soothsayers where the artist focuses her camera on 52 fierce, funny, and flamboyant heritage-breed chickens. Each image deftly showcases the hen's individuality and personality while acting as a powerful statement to respect and revere the animals we share this earth with.

To frame the release of her upcoming monograph, we asked Moon to share a little about her experiences with publishing her various photographic series in book form. Signed copies of Literary Chickens can be pre-ordered with our bookstore here, and Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms remains on view at photo-eye Gallery through November, 24th, 2018.

The title page from Beth Moon's Literary Chickens from photo-eye's Booktease™.

photo-eye: Literary Chickens will be your fifth book. How has the process varied from book to book?

Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees, photographs by Beth Moon
Abbeville Press, 2016, Signed Hardbound: $60.00

Beth Moon: Each book has presented a unique learning experience with challenges and rewards. I tend to put publishers into two general camps, trade and fine art, although there are numerous variations within this framework, as well as self-publishing. It is an extensive subject!
A fine art publisher produces books with costly elements characterized by a high production value. Generally, these books are a limited edition, having a higher retail value, catering to a niche market of artists and collectors. By comparison, a trade or commercial publisher is geared to produce a larger print run and able to introduce the book to a larger audience.

I have worked with Abbeville Press on three books now; a rare publisher that is a nice combination of both fine art and trade. On the other spectrum, producing a book with fine art publisher, Galerie Vevais was a great collaboration with poet, Collier Brown. Collier chose images to pair with a poem that he wrote for the limited edition book, La Langue Verte.

There are tradeoffs and benefits with each type of publishing, but what they both have in common is a tremendous amount of work that starts after the images are edited down to final choices. I greatly enjoy the process, even though, as I am approaching completion, I vow never to produce another book again! My memory is short lived.

pe: Do you have any advice for photographers who would like to have a book of their work published?

BM: I am by no means qualified to give advice on what I consider such a vast subject, but I think if you are passionate about a project, making a book can take the work to a deeper level by rounding out the series, clarifying thoughts and purpose and expanding the dialogue. However, I think it is important to give great thought to defining what you hope to accomplish. Making a book is an arduous process and it requires a wide range of skill sets to produce, so it is best to get advice/help especially in areas such as design, and marketing.

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For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms

photo-eye Gallery's current exhibition, Ancient Kingdoms, is a solo exhibition of black-and-white platinum prints by renowned photographer Beth Moon spanning two decades of work and images from four discrete projects. In this Gallery Favorites collection Anne, Lucas, and Yoana each select a work of note from a different project currently on view in the exhibition. Focusing on our core principle, to "collect work you love," the Gallery Staff has selected images from the exhibition that resound personally for each of them while honoring Moon's themes of humanity’s relationship with nature, the passage of time, resilience, and survival.

Anne Kelly selects Avenue of Baobabs

Avenue of Baobabs, Platinum/Palladium Print, 30x40" Image, 5/5, $16,000 – Beth Moon

Anne Kelly - Gallery Director

anne@photoeye.com

505.988.5152 x121

It is no secret that I love trees – or photography! Having grown up in the mountains in Colorado I was lucky to have spent my early childhood playing in the forest amongst the pine and aspen trees …so many fond memories are burned into my subconscious – and I have not doubt that my fascination with trees is directly connected. That said, I was not surprised to learn that Beth Moon had a similar childhood, one spent playing in the wilderness.

Baobab trees are simply amazing, they are known to grow 16 to 98 feet tall with trunk diameters up to 36 ft and can store up to 32,000 gallons of water in the trunk. The oldest reported tree was 2,450 years old when it died.

I have never actually seen a Baobab tree …other than in pictures. I suppose this is one of the many reasons that I love photography: it allows the photographer to be able to share their experience and transport the viewer to far away lands. I hope to experience a Baobab in person one day, hopefully sooner than later since many are starting to disappear. In the meantime, as I gaze upon Beth Moon’s image I feel like I am walking down a dirt road in the sunlight – in the avenue to the Baobab.

Lucas Maclaine Shaffer selects Belgian Bearded D'Anvers

Belgian Bearded D'Anvers, Platinum/Palladium Print, 7.5x6" Image, Edition of 9, $950 – Beth Moon

Lucas Maclaine Shaffer

Special Projects & Client Relations

lucas@photoeye.com

505.988.5152 x114

Look at this hen. Proud, fancy, confident – you might even call its appearance regal. It's not what you normally call to mind when you think of a chicken, at least I don't, and I think this disparity is just what Beth Moon has in mind. Moon's Augurs and Soothsayers is a series of platinum hen portraits aimed at reframing our relationship with animals regularly farmed for the food industry. I connect with Moon's attempt to defamilarize our preconceptions regarding the animals we choose to eat and respond to the gorgeous formal treatment she lavishes on each hen portrait in the series. With it, Moon effectively humanizes her subjects, showcasing their individual character and respectfully giving us the chance to confront them eye to eye, if only in a gallery setting.

Aside from Augurs and Soothsayers' ultimate goals, I find the series of images delightful and fun. Moon creates empathy in the viewer through striking a delicate balance between the playful, light-hearted elements of the series, like the fluffy appearance of the Belgian Bearded D'Anvers above and the heavier undercurrent of the project. Belgian Bearded D'Anvers is my favorite of the series, and the exhibition, because I respond to her strong character as described by Moon's deft photographic treatment.

Yoana Medrano selects Listening to the Sky

Listening to the Sky, Platinum/Palladium Print, 20x16" Image, 3/25, $2400 – Beth Moon

Yoana Medrano – Gallery Associate

yoana@photoeye.com

505.988.5152 x 116

A picture is worth a thousand words; well, I think you could fill a series of books with Beth Moon’s work. Every piece takes you to a new place or a moment. She is fantastic at creating these stories with her imagery – connecting with our core selves. Of the four series that we are exhibiting in the gallery, Thy Kingdom Come has captured my attention, the work has a soft sweet quality that pulls you in. The stories are a bit more apparent in this work: young women on some kind of journey with animals. It is quite somber, but I wouldn’t say sad, and carries along with it an appreciation for our furry friends.

Listening to the Sky is my favorite image of the show. The girl in the photograph is pressing a bird up to her ear as if to listen to the secrets that the bird has received through a lifetime in flight. I think we forget to realize in our regular day to day that we share this planet with amazing and gorgeous creatures. This work makes me slow down and remember that we are together and in some ways, it is sad but in a way that makes me wake up. I believe in these women, their journey, and how they pay their respects to the creatures that we tend to ignore.

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Print prices listed were correct at the time this post was published. Prices may increase as the print edition sells. Please contact Gallery Staff for the most current print information.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms

On view through November 24th, 2018

» View the Work

» Read Anne Kelly's Interview with Beth Moon

» Behind the Photo with Beth Moon

photo-eye Gallery
541 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501

– View Map–

Beth Moon's exhibition Ancient Kindom installed at photo-eye Gallery

photo-eye Gallery was delighted to open our latest exhibition Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdom last Friday, September 28th. Beth Moon is a recently represented artist at photo-eye Gallery and Ancient Kingdoms corresponds with the release of her fourth monograph Literary Chickens, a series of heritage-breed chicken portraits paired with literary excerpts published by Abbeville Press.

For greater insight into the series, we reached out to Moon to tell us the story of how a couple of the images were made. In this Behind the Photo segment, Moon describes her thoughts and intentions regarding the creation of her images Serma and Ameraucana from her series Augurs and Soothsayers.

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms will remain on view at photo-eye Gallery through Saturday, November 24th, and Moon's monograph, Literary Chickens, is due to be released later this month.

Serama, Platinum/Palladium Print, 7.5x6" Image, Edition of 9, $950

SERAMA

I was initially contacted by a German publisher interested in publishing the chicken portraits I started in 2010. Needing a few more images, I contacted Isabella Rossellini and asked to photograph her heritage chickens as her farm was not far away.

On her farm, all animals; sheep, pigs, dogs, and goats are part of one big family. Concerned with animal welfare, Isabella believes that each small farm has an important part to play to boost genetic diversity – truly an inspiration!

Used to being handled, her hens were especially gentle. This particular hen, a Serama, caught my attention. She was very curious and affectionate, watching everything that I did. The breed originates in Malaysia and was named after the King of Thailand, Raja Sri Rama, who like the birds, was renowned for his majestic appearance and proud carriage.

Looking at the finished print, a Dickens quote came to mind, “Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together.”

Ameraucana, Platinum/Palladium Print, 7.5x6" Image, Edition of 9, $950

AMERAUCANA

This was the very first hen portrait I made. It was a test actually. I had a rough idea of what I was after, but I wasn’t sure it would translate on paper.

With a low to the ground table, a linen backdrop, I accepted an invitation to visit a friend’s chickens. Every time the hen was placed on the table, it immediately hopped off. It was a race to see if I could focus and compose the shot before the chicken jumped. I got faster in time. Fueled by my dissatisfaction of factory farming and outraged at the treatment of farm animals, I was determined to continue!

Reviewing the shots later that afternoon, I saw empty frames! Many were out of focus, but I was encouraged by this image. While anticipating the bird jumping, I compensated by moving the camera to the left, leaving the bird off center, but it was in that split second that I felt a connection where I caught the gaze of the hen peering cautiously at me.

It wasn’t my intention to find expressions or qualities similar to that of humans, but by ignoring these human-like characteristics we risk seeing these animals as separate and we miss something fundamental about animals and ourselves. By recognizing similar qualities, we begin to view animals as individual beings that deserve respect, and that’s a good first step!

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

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Literary Chickens by Beth Moon

Photographs by Beth Moon.
Afterword by Jane Goodall.
Abbeville Press, Jackson, 2018. 144 pp., 9x11¼".

Pre-Order
Hardbound [Signed]: $50.00

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at
505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

photo-eye Gallery
541 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
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ANNOUNCING

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms
Works In Platinum

Opening Reception & Book Signing: Friday, September 28, 5 – 7 PM
On View: September 28 – November 24, 2018

photo-eye Gallery
541 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
– View Map–

505-988-5152 x202

» View Work by Beth Moon » Books by Beth Moon » Attend the Opening

Belgian Bearded D'Anvers,
Platinum/Palladium Print, 7.5x6"
Image, Edition of 9, $900

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

photo-eye Gallery is thrilled to announce Ancient Kingdoms, a solo exhibition of black-and-white platinum prints by renowned photographer Beth Moon. Ancient Kingdoms corresponds with the release of Moon’s fourth monograph Literary Chickens, a series of heritage-breed chicken portraits paired with literary excerpts published by Abbeville Press. An exhibition opening, artist reception, and book signing event will take place on Friday, September 28 from 5–7 pm during the Last Friday Art Walk in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts district. Ancient Kingdoms will remain on view through Saturday, November 24, 2018.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Ancient Kingdoms presents a collection of platinum prints by Beth Moon spanning nearly two decades of work and images from four discrete projects. Portraits of Time depicts the grace and endurance of ancient trees, Thy Kingdom Come focuses on totem-like beliefs and practices connecting man to animal, Odin’s Cove celebrates natural beauty and a sense of place through an extended portrait of two ravens, and Augurs and Soothsayers is a series of intimate hen portraits confronting our removed relationship with animals.

Thy Kingdom Come,
Journey of the Bobcat,
Platinum/Palladium Print,
20x16" Image, 3/25, $2800

While the subject matter varies widely from tree portraits to a spiritual journey, the overarching themes of Moon’s work including humanity’s relationship with nature, a fascination with time, resilience, and survival serve to unify the exhibition. In essence, Moon images utilize the history of the plant and animal kingdoms to ask beautiful questions about our relativity to nature while challenging us to respect and acknowledge our place within the greater lifecycle – one which both precedes us and will outlast our time on earth. Subtle but triumphant, Moon’s prints often evoke a primal ache, a sense of wistful wonder, and an urge to connect with the wild.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Beth Moon is a Connecticut-based photographer who has exhibited widely nationally and internationally, including solo shows at the Muse Museo delle Scienze di Trento, Italy, The Houston Center for Photography, Texas, and The Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, CA among others. She was awarded, the Golden Light Award from the Maine Media Workshops and has work in several prominent collections including, The Fox Talbot Museum; UK, The Museum of Fine Arts; Houston, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, Italy.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

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Literary Chickens by Beth Moon

Photographs by Beth Moon.
Afterword by Jane Goodall.
Abbeville Press, Jackson, 2018. 144 pp., 9x11¼".

Pre-Order
Hardbound [Signed]: $50.00

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at 505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

photo-eye Gallery
541 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
– View Map–

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SERAMA

AMERAUCANA

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

ABOUT THE ARTIST