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Press Releases | |
February 8, 2000
"Across America": Photographs by Yoshi Higa at Southampton College
Japanese-American Artist, 61, Shares His Bike Trip Across the USAContact:
Darren Johnson
631-287-8313Southampton, NY - "Pedaling Professor" Yoshi Higa biked across the USA last summer for charity and was awestruck by its beauty. The renowned photographer captured on film America's rolling plains and snow-capped peaks and many of the people he'd met along the way. Now visitors to Southampton College of Long Island University will be able to relive Higa's trip through an exhibit of striking photographs.
"Across America" will be on display at the Avram Gallery from February 7 through March 7, with an opening reception February 10, 4-6 p.m. The Avram Gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 12-5 p.m., and by appointment. There is no charge for admission. For information call gallery director Beth Giles at (631) 287-8234.
In May 1999, Higa, 61, undertook a personal challenge to cross America solo by bicycle following the 4,000-plus mile northern route. Starting in Anacortes, just north of Seattle, he crossed the Cascade Mountains barely one week behind the season's opening of the North Cascades Highway. Starting his odyssey at sea level, with a ceremonial washing of his face in the cold waters of the Rosario Strait, he rode to an elevation of 5,575 feet at the snow covered Sherman Pass in the first week. For the next 85 days he crossed the Rocky Mountains, followed rail tracks through Big Sky country, rode alongside the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes and through the Finger Lakes and Catskill Mountains. Finally, in mid-August, he reached the Atlantic Ocean for a quick dip in Hampton Bays before cycling through the gates of Southampton College to an enthusiastic welcome.
The photographs shown in this exhibition are Higa's personal daily journal of views from the road as he pedaled through the American Heartland. He realized the power of the natural world, watched devastating storms approach from the horizon and saw crops shriveling in 104-degree heat. He saw how humans have touched the land, the hard work and the whimsy, the desolation and the strength of community and family.
As Higa said at the press interview on his arrival at Southampton College: "This country is wonderful, the scenery is spectacular and everyone is really kind. For 93 days, I was cheered on my way by everyone I met."
Along with his sleeping bag, tent and a change of clothes, Higa carried three 35mm cameras, lenses, one medium format camera and of course a lot of film.
Higa has been a fine arts professor at Southampton College since 1977. He teaches silk screening, photography and painting and founded the Masters Workshop in Photography that is offered every summer. Higa used his journey across America to raise money for a scholarship fund for Arts and Media students to be founded in his name at the college. Over $8,000 has been raised so far from individual contributors.
Higa's photography has been represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and featured in Life Magazine. He is the founder of the Japanese American Young Artists festival, and the biennial International Photography Symposium in Okinawa, Japan, where he was born.