Photo Exhibit Featuring Thoreau To Open on Saturday

A new photography exhibit featuring the blood-red sunsets, misty lakes, and yellow autumn leaves of Maine is set to open to the public on Saturday at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Entitled “Thoreau’s Maine Woods,” the exhibit features photos shot by Texas photographer Scot Miller and commemorates the the 150th anniversary of the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s book The Maine Woods.

“I wanted people to rediscover Thoreau, and this is the best description of the way the Maine woods were originally,” Miller said in an interview with The Crimson on Thursday.

In addition to featuring 34 of Miller’s photographs, the exhibit at Harvard’s natural history museum features a number of natural and historical artifacts, including one of Thoreau’s snowshoes.

Miller is no stranger to translating Thoreau’s writing into images. The Museum of Natural History featured Miller’s exhibit “Thoreau’s Walden” in 2005, and the photographer has also illustrated Thoreau’s “Cape Cod.”

“When Scot approached me again about his personal and photographic journey to the Maine woods, it was just a natural marriage,” said Janis Sacco, director of exhibitions at Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. “He’s willing to entertain very different ways of looking at art and art in nature.”

Miller estimates that he spent a total of 120 days in the Maine wilderness photographing specifically for the book, traversing the state from Bangor to Fort Kent and documenting his journey with the help of a medium format film camera and HD video.

Miller said nature is a central aspect of his work, which he often pursues “in conjunction with conservation causes,” he added.

“It’s just my hope that people will also be inspired to learn a little more about it and get up there and see the place,” Miller said. “As time goes on, it’s getting subdivided, and hopefully some of the land is preserved.”

By using LED lights to illuminate the photographs and sustainably harvested walnut for the photo frames, Miller hopes to create an environmentally friendly exhibit at Harvard.

“This is my second exhibition here, and I’m very proud of what the staff has done,” Miller said in a talk on the exhibit at the Geological Lecture Hall on Thursday.

Several installation elements complement the photographs, including a recording of forest sounds and a stuffed black bear cub. Also on display is a preserved trillium flower that Thoreau collected during one of his trips to Maine.

“The idea that Thoreau actually collected this and mounted it, and it’s now in the collections, along with many other Thoreau artifacts...to me that says something special about having [the exhibit] here at Harvard and in the museum,” said Jane Pickering, executive director of the Museums of Science and Culture.

The exhibit will run until Sept. 1, 2014.