Jason Huntzinger, Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry’s 2017 artist in residence

Adjunct photography professor, Jason Huntzinger, took his introduction to photography class on a field trip to Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry recently to capture the beauty of the area through photographs.
Huntzinger is wrapping up his 2017 CLDQ “Artist Residency” and will show his work from the yearlong residency Friday, Nov. 3, from 6-8 p.m. at the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price.
The quarry contains the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur bones ever found in the world. The quarry’s dinosaurs are mostly carnivores, a very unusual situation, and although there are various theories on how this came to be, none of them add up, according to Michael Leschin, geologist at the quarry.
This fits right in with Huntzinger’s photographic philosophy, with most of the narrative moving outside the frame, making the mystery. “I’d like to mythologize the quarry through this work, the idea that the excursion to the quarry is an intense trip that makes one ponder what cataclysmic events could have occurred at this specific site to cause the demise of the dinosaurs,” Huntzinger said. He created “Quarry Trip,” a short film which focuses on this idea,
Huntzinger won “Best Cinematography” for the film at the 2017 Helper Film Festival and it will be part of the USU Eastern museum exhibit.
In his third year of teaching photography at USU Eastern, Huntzinger is originally from Duluth, Minnesota, and calls Helper his home. He is enthralled with Utah’s landscapes and ghost towns.
The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is about a half-hour trip from Price. It will be closing for the season, then reopening in April. For more information on the quarry, contact the Price BLM at 435-636-3600.