Guest Speaker Frank Lee Ruggles will address RPS Meeting via ZOOM, 2/22 at 7:30PM.
Frank Lee Ruggles is a Conservation Photographer and artist from Virginia. He has had the honor of serving as a Soldier, Federal Contractor and Federal employee under every Presidential Administration from Reagan through Obama. As a contractor, he performed photographic services for The State Department, Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, The Department of Energy, The US Treasury and was the archival photographic printer for the Smithsonian Institution. His favorite assignment however, was as an eminent photographer for the National Park Service’s Digital Imaging Project, which took him to National Parks across all 50 states of the USA.
Now a civilian, Frank has completed his first book, “Chasing Light, and Exploration of the American Landscape” featuring 11 years of National Park Images. His current and most ambitious undertaking is the 79 Years Project, in which he will retrace-and re-shoot the Department of Interior’s 1941-42 Mural Project, originally captured on 8×10 film by Ansel Adams. Frank will re-shoot each photograph from the Mural Project on the same day of the year using the same 8×10 film gear that Adams used. When completed, the project will highlight (through comparison of the two sets of images) just what we have lost and what we have managed to save in America’s National Parks over the course of 79 years. Frank chose this unusual interval because 79 years is the average lifespan of an American Citizen. He also has the honor of serving as the first Artist Ambassador for the National Park Trust. He can be usually found exploring, photographing or lecturing about conservation around the country when he’s not tending to his Ranch in central Virginia with his wife, Lisa Crow Ruggles and his Great Dane Stanley.
