Samar Yahya Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A “Discover America” exhibition by American artist and photographer Tom Till was held at the US Consulate General in Jeddah on Sunday evening. The exhibition included 26 panel photographs featuring various American landscapes. This is Till's first exhibition in Saudi Arabia after holding similar events in 2003 in a number of US states. Till is one of America's foremost landscape photographers. He has had a 40-year career where he authored over 30 books, published hundreds of thousands of images and had prints displayed in America and the rest of the world. He is one of Outdoor Photographer magazine's “Lords of Landscape Photography”. Till's works have been used in many environmental campaigns in the United States. As an ardent traveler he has photographed in all states of US and in 100 countries across the world. Over 250,000 of his images have appeared in print since 1977. Till has one of the largest photo libraries in existence in southwest America. Numerous conservation and environmental groups have used his photos to galvanize support and illustrate their publications. He received a special award from The Nature Conservancy in 1998. During a tour of the exhibition, visitors asked Till about the photographs and his techniques, and he answered in detail. The panel photographs were taken in different states like Arizona, California, Utah and more. They featured sand dunes and many ruins decorated with pictographs. A winter sunrise revealing a snowy landscape in the world famous Monument Valley, an ancient Anasazi ruin that defies gravity on a wall above the Grand Canyon and a striking canyon along the Escalante River are featured in other photographs. The Colorado Plateau, a place featuring an amazing rock formation and natural sculpture, was another highlight. Another photographic highlight was The Wave, an area of finely sculpted sandstone that became a very famous place to visit in the US. After the photo was taken, a German friend of Till used it as the basis of a book and movie called “Fascinating Nature”. US Consul General Anne Casper welcomed all the guests and expressed her honor at being able to receive Till. “To me, a show like this is so wonderful. It is an opportunity to exchange culture and information and to get to know each other.” This is Till's first visit to Saudi Arabia, where he visited Jeddah's downtown area and conducted a photo shoot, an experience he described as “great”. He will conduct more visits to areas and landscapes throughout the Kingdom.
