If listening to the airline woes of your traveling friends has turned you into an armchair traveler, consider a visit to Mongolia by visiting the White Lotus Gallery at 767 Willamette in Eugene.
In the quiet charm of this lovely gallery space, you can enter into the world of the semi-nomadic herdsmen of the Altai Mountains through the photographs of Gary Tepfer. For over twenty years, Gary has been the field photographer for a project investigating the rock art and monumental archeology in North Asia.
Each of Gary's photographs leads you into the vast landscapes of Mongolia. The images “Above Deer Hill” and “Grasslands” show the golden light saturating the famous steppes, the rolling grass extending to the horizon.
Gary also shows us summer and winter snowstorms in the high mountains, each with a quicksilver light that both reveals and conceals these legendary heights.
Tepfer’s photograph of a blue lake takes you to a deep valley where a broad swath of god's rays light up the deep lake with what I can only describe as a momentary glory.
Altai herder families have a long and rich history, dating back thousands of years. Gary captures some of this with an interior of a dining space in a yurt, and another of a woman milking a yak. These portraits all speak to the daily lives of people who live in a harsh and unforgiving environment who have adapted to survive and thrive in this land.
As part of his documentation of rock art, Gary shows us images of deer, ibex and camel. The numerous rock carvings and funerary monuments studied in these sites illustrate the development of culture in Mongolia over a period of 12,000 years.
When you walk out of this immersive exhibit, your mind will be swimming with the purity of Tepfer’s moving images–and no waiting in line for canceled and re-routed international flights.
