Appreciations: Sierra Club Photography at the New York Hall of Science

Out here in the wilds of New Jersey (even the northeastern corner of the state, with plentiful access to roads and public transportation), Queens can seem like the far side of the moon, so I doubt that I've been out to the New York City borough more than a dozen times in my life.

On Saturday, though, I had occasion to do so, and I urge you all my faithful readers (both of you!) to follow my lead out to the Corona area of Queens, at 111th Street, to the New York Hall of Science.

Maybe my parents – or maybe one of my aunts and uncles from the Tubridy side of the family -- took me and my two older brothers out to the World's Fair in 1964. (Didn't all area resident parents of baby boomers do so then?) But I was a young whippersnapper, giving my long-suffering folks no end of grief. (Internal editor: Oh, like you don’t anymore?)

So I have no recollection of this much-ballyhooed event, and I had only the vaguest recollection until recently that a remnant of the fair– the New York Hall of Science and the Space Park – still stood on the old grounds.

This past weekend gave me an excuse to fill this gaping hole in my education (yes, I know, it's one of many such gaps; but, as the Chinese proverb goes, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.")

The occasion was the opening of a special exhibition of photographs produced by members of the New York City Sierra Club Photography club. This juried exhibition lasts from now through April 27, so it gives my readers a reason to take the Long Island Express or #7 Train to this area of Queens for something besides their Santana-signed Mets.

A very brief description of the Hall of Science's current exhibitions is here. Scroll down the downloaded page and you'll find a brief notice of the Sierra Club photography event, along with a picture taken by my wonderful longtime friend, Stephanie Schmidt.

As someone who has admired photography but struggled to create my own, I can only stand in awe of Stephanie's mastery of the craft. You may not have come in contact with her work yet, but I'm sure that her talents will take her so far that you will eventually.

Amazingly enough, Stephanie’s perfectionism exceeds her wanderlust, which has taken her to every continent except Australia. (And I expect to hear her talking knowledgeably about kangaroos and “shrimp on the Barbie” any day now.)

The rock formations captured by Stephanie and the other photographers come from far and near. Yes, there are New York area shots, even from the likes of Central Park.

But the real exotic wonders in the exhibit, I believe, come from much farther away – the Rockies, Greenland, and, in Stephanie’s case, Antarctica. These photographs underscore the truth of Henry David Thoreau's observation that "In wildness is the preservation of the world."

In a time of growing concern about global warming, these works should remind us why our world is so magnificent, and so worth our efforts to save it from development.