2024

BEAR LAKE NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Grant commission project funded by the Utah Forestry, Fire, and State Lands, administered by Utah State University’s Institute of Land, Water, and Air, and made in collaboration with Utah State University students from the ART 3830 Documentary and Visual Storytelling course. 


Bear Lake is unique in the region as one of just three large natural lakes in Utah. Over the past decade, visitation to Bear Lake, located on the Idaho-Utah border, has surged by 300% and amplified concerns over development, water management, and environmental sustainability. This has created unique challenges for the lake and those who maintain the land.

The Bear Lake Needs Assessment Documentation and Visualization Project blends scientific research with visual storytelling to raise awareness of critical issues surrounding Bear Lake’s natural resources, land use, and human impact. The project is one of ten Bear Lake Needs Assessment research projects funded by grants from the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and administered by USU’s Institute for Land, Water and Air (ILWA).

Through more than 20 field visits in 2024, Assistant Professor of Photography Jared Ragland and students in the ART 3830 Documentary and Visual Storytelling class have worked with local stakeholders and Bear Lake Needs Assessment research teams. Ragland and his students have created a visual record that reflects the lake’s unique ecological, historical, agricultural, and recreational features while highlighting the efforts of USU researchers and community partners to safeguard the lake’s future.

The project is developed from a range of photographic traditions, including early geological survey photographs made in the American West in the 1870s, the sublime Western landscapes captured by Group f/64 in the mid-twentieth century, and the politically charged New Topographics movement of the 1970s. The project is also inspired by more contemporary photographic approaches, particularly those by artists working in recent documentary traditions in which personal perspectives, political points of view, and visual poetics inform lyrically driven photographs and non-linear image sequences.

Following the exhibition, select images from the project will be featured in ILWA’s annual Report to the Governor and Legislature on Utah’s Land, Water and Air, and included in a comprehensive report to address the lake’s long-term management and support informed decision-making for future policies. An archive containing several hundred digital images will be archived by ILWA and provide a lasting resource for research and advocacy.

Student photographers and editors are: Lele Bonizzi; Eli Clare; Anastasia Coleman; Olivia Ethington; Kennedy Fry; Annora Madden; Kennedy McLeod; Kenzli Pendleton;

Read the press release here.

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Exhibitions & Publications:
  • Report to the Governor and Legislature on Utah’s Land, Water and Air, Utah State University, 2024.
  • Bear Lake Needs Assessment Documentation and Visualization Project. Tippetts and Eccles Galleries, Utah State University, 2024. 

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Select Works: 


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