Half Wild borrows its title from a passage in Our National Parks, written by John Muir in 1909, wherein the Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocateof wilderness preservation contemplates the public's ?growing interest in the care and preservation of forests and wildplaces in general, and in the half wild parks and gardens of towns.' Using this phrase as a way of thinking about both his surroundings and photography itself, Happel Christian constructed this work, over the course of two and half years, in his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota and in Muir's home, Yosemite National Park.In her accompanying essay Liz Sales discusses the relationship between the wilderness and photographic abstraction, a potentially limitless territory.
