Photographer Ian Ruhter returns house with monumental exhibition, The Lake, at LTCC’s Haldan Gallery

 SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Internationally acclaimed photographer Ian Ruhter will return to his roots this fall with The Lake, a significant exhibition of latest ambrotypes and tintypes at Lake Tahoe Community College’s Haldan Gallery, on view Oct. 9 by Dec. 11. The public is invited to a gap reception with the artist on Thursday, Oct. 9, from 5–8 p.m. 

In some ways, Ruhter’s photographic journey started at Lake Tahoe. Diagnosed with dyslexia as a toddler, he found his inventive voice as a younger grownup in a images class at LTCC. Using a pinhole digicam made out of an oatmeal container, Ruhter acknowledged a mirrored model of his personal worldview: inverted, reversed, however profoundly significant. “At 26, I finally felt like I was able to speak,” Ruhter recollects. 

That discovery set him on a path to worldwide recognition. When the images world shifted towards digital, Ruhter resisted, looking out as an alternative for authenticity in historic processes. His rediscovery of moist collodion images, a mid-Nineteenth-century methodology utilizing glass and steel plates, led to groundbreaking work on an unprecedented scale. Transforming a field truck into the world’s largest moist plate digicam, Ruhter created monumental ambrotypes and tintypes, some measuring 96 by 66 inches, establishing him as a singular determine in modern images. 

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Despite exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, Ruhter lengthy envisioned displaying these works the place they originated—on the lake itself. The Lake brings this dream full circle, presenting 68 pictures, together with two of the biggest moist collodion plates ever made, alongside an exploration of his course of. 

“This exhibition is more than a homecoming,” stated Ruhter. “It’s about transformation, about finding your voice, and about returning to the place where it all began. For me, the treasure has always been here at the lake.” 

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EXHIBITION DETAILS 

Title: The Lake 

Artist: Ian Ruhter 

Dates: Oct. 9–Dec. 11

Opening Reception: Thursday, Oct. 9, 5–8 p.m. 

Location: Haldan Gallery, Lake Tahoe Community College, One College Drive, South Lake Tahoe, CA