Wild Time in the Midwest Photography Show
(May 1, 2010 - June 15, 2010)

The Dacotah Prairie Museum welcomed a new photography exhibit featuring the artistic work of Shawheen Nazari of Fargo, ND. The exhibit was entitled: “A Wild Time in the Midwest” and was located on 2nd floor in the Dacotah Gallery.

Shawheen Nazari was born in Massachusetts and grew up in North Dakota, exploring the outdoors from an early age. In order to combine his passions for nature and design, he studied architecture at North Dakota State University and received his master’s degree. While attending university, Nazari was a finalist for the McKenzie Prize and received the Detailing Award for his unique model design and finely detailed work. He employs the same close attention to detail in his photography. Nature is his primary focus and he has traveled across the United States capturing photographs of a variety of animals and environments. Recently, the city of Scottsdale, Arizona recognized the distinctiveness of Nazari’s work and chose to portray his photography of landscape in the city’s tourism brochure.

The exhibit at the Dacotah Prairie closely examined flowers, plants, animals and landscape by enlarging the most interesting features of each subject into a total format. Color and lighting are key to the wonderful impact of Nazari’s photographs.

“Photography,” Nazari states, “ is a balancing act. Imagine a tight ropewalker. He/she requires patience, concentration, and coordination. The ropewalker’s ability to find the right balance of these elements is crucial to their success.” Nazari has also used his love of photography to record buildings for architectural firms and to sell to advertisers perfect image for their business or product. “A visually pleasing photo”, says the artist, “can be a proper balance of lighting, form and composition. However, while that tight rope walker has only a straight path to follow, a photographer has endless paths.”

For information on past exhibits in the Dacotah Gallery, please click here.