An exhibit of photographs by local forester and instructor Patrick J. Cummins will open in the Helen S. Smith Gallery at Green River Community College on Tuesday, June 25. The show runs through Aug. 9.

The exhibit features scenes of typical northwestern forestry practices during the late 1970s and early 1980s; a decade during which Washington state’s forest regulations began to evolve. Scenes like those shown in this exhibit (vast clear cuts and broadcast slash burning, for example) were the impetus that launched our environmental movement.

Workers shown in some photos were Cummins’ students who were required to learn the work, considered part of their education. Some students paid their way through GRCC by using a chainsaw. Others supervised the practices on jobs for timber companies, after their graduation.

But beyond the historical and social subject matters, Cummins’ photos are powerful works of art in their own right. There is mystery, brutality, tenderness. Lines and forms of the forests are set with human activities to give us some beautiful and ironic images.