Mega, Macro and Micro: A Detailed View of the Universe - An Exhibition by Allen Ruttenberg

I am an academic sort. My initial studies were in agriculture where I earned my BS and MS in animal husbandry at the University of Illinois. My focus was on comparative physiology, and I went on to study medical physiology at USC Med School. Eventually I became a physician and practiced ER medicine for over 20 years, mostly in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I have studied the art of photography since age 13 and studied art history in college. From 1985-2003 I traveled a great deal internationally (more than 30 countries) and concentrated on underwater photography and travel. In 1985 I worked as a physician in a cardiology unit in Durban, South Africa caring for Zulu tribal people during the period of apartheid. During that period, I took a 6,000-mile driving tour of Southern Africa. That experience informed my world perspective enormously. For the past 12 years I have been concentrating on landscape images of the four-corners states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah as my source of inspiration. Over the last 6-7 years I have been engaged in a project producing ultra-thin layers of chemical crystals on microscope slides and photographing them using a procedure I developed in my home lab/studio. During the pandemic I have also concentrated on images of cut flowers. Given my background in animal husbandry it should come as no surprise my concern for widespread animal extinction events. In pursuit of that awareness, during the years 2022-2024 I have had over 50 visits to the Albuquerque Bio-park Zoo and have made a fine art photography book of the animals and the environment of that zoo.