A Walk in the Park

One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been that it’s pushed so many of us to explore nature in a socially distanced fashion. The Photoworks online exhibit A Walk in the Park, juried by the photographer Barbara Tyroler, spotlights the visually calming landscapes of the D.C. area, notably the C&O Canal and the Potomac River. Some of the five dozen works by 39 photographers capture wildlife, including Miki Jourdan’s pintail duck, Amanda Mason’s spotted lanternflies in the shadow of a sunburst, Dennis O’Keefe’s egret in reflection, and Linda McKnight’s intriguingly shaky portrayal of a buck in the brambles. A few images include human interlopers, including Irene Owsley’s kayaker improbably poised to go down a rocky waterfall. But the exhibit’s most common, and resonant, portrayals are unpopulated landscapes limned in a melancholy fitting for our pandemic times: mist-enveloped trees by Richard Batch and Gaetana Ebbole, seemingly frozen waterfalls by Charlie Fox-Whelpton, ghostly tree limbs by Sarah Hood Salomon, and gracefully lapping water by Lewis Schrager. The exhibit may be online only, but if it gets you out of lockdown, it’s served its purpose. The exhibition is available through the end of January at glenechophotoworks.org. There is an artists’ Zoom talk at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3. Free.