Councilman Gary Reese grew up hiking the hills and mountains of rural Nevada and returns there now to hike, photograph and enjoy the wide open spaces.

Councilman Gary Reese was delighted to find another Gary Reese who, while no relation, is a professional photographer and shares the same love of the outdoors and the same commitment to preserving Nevada’s natural beauty.

Photographer Gary Reese’s photos are featured on each page of Councilman Reese’s website. Here’s more information about Gary Reese, the photographer . . .

Award winning Las Vegas-based photographer Gary Reese teaches photography courses through the Community College of Southern Nevada. Besides teaching Beginning and Intermediate Photography, Gary has developed courses in Photographing Our Natural and Cultural Heritage I and II, Photographing the Heritage of the West, Advanced B&W Darkroom, Infrared Photography, as well as Continuing Education courses in the rural communities where he loves to photograph. His Heritage courses stem from a philosophy that photographers need to take a multi-disciplinary approach to their photography. By applying knowledge of history, biology, sociology and anthropology, they have a better chance at an artistic interpretation our of our natural and cultural heritage.

Gary is an artist with the Henderson Art Association. His photography regularly appears in Nevada Magazine. He is a frequent exhibitor at the Old Town Gallery, Reflection Bay Rotunda at Lake Las Vegas, Border’s Bookstores, the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse, the Las Vegas Art Museum and at various galleries in rural Nevada. He has contributed to group exhibits shown at these venues, as well as the Nevada State Museum, the Clark Co. Heritage Museum, Henderson City Hall, and CCSN’s ArtSpace and Image Gallery.

Gary has his graduate degree in Range Science, with nation-wide experience as a conservation biologist. He combines a unique blend of art, science and education experiences to create a distinctive style in documenting the natural and cultural heritage of America’s Southwest through photography.

He has successfully used his photography skills to protect endangered plants, animals and their natural communities. In 1997, he was credited with locating and inventorying, for the eastern half of the US, more sites with threatened biodiversity than any other modern biologist. Since then, he has focused his camera on significant, under protected natural and cultural resources in the southwestern United States. He is the co-author of "Plant Community Classification of the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Clark and Nye Counties, Nevada."

Gary typically photographs subjects which are off the beaten path. "Photographers too often limit their field photography to areas which are already very well photographed and protected," he says. "Everyone has seen photos of these natural and cultural icons, usually shot to reveal their most beautiful side or captured at an ideal moment. This selective vision can lull the public into a false sense of security thinking that our resources are already well protected. But what about the remaining 90% of our heritage? The population boom in our region has its side effects in disturbing species habitat, draining water resources, interrupting the state of arrested decay of our ghost towns, and disrupting the cultural evolution in rural Nevada’s agricultural valleys. I see the opportunity in exhibiting my photography of lesser known sites to show the public their past, present and future. Photography’s ability to communicate beauty and truth can often yield more immediate impacts and reach more people than can scientific reports."