Lightfall

Palo Gallery is pleased to present Lightfall, the second solo exhibition at the gallery by acclaimed British photographer and filmmaker Jane Hilton. Featuring a body of 12 photographs and one video work, Lightfall offers an intimate and incisive look at the people and places that have shaped Hilton’s three-decade exploration of the American West. In this new series, Hilton turns her attention to the emotional and symbolic role of light across Western landscapes and the lives embedded within them. Lightfall brings together portraits and vistas that are quintessential to the artistic and iconographic saga of American photography; in direct dialogue with the likes of Egglestone, Watkins, Lange and Adams. Among the works included are select pieces from Dead Eagle Trail, Hilton’s celebrated series of cowboy portraits made in the homes of Nevada buckaroos and Arizona cowpunchers. Shown here in conversation with lesser known landscapes, these portraits underscore themes such as the legacy of a fading culture, the rituals of daily life, and the pull of heritage in a rapidly shifting world, all central ideas to Lightfall. The keystone of the exhibition are Hilton’s luminous landscapes, including the dusk-lit Ute Mountain in Colorado. In these prints Hilton’s contemplative approach invites viewers to consider the stories, both cultural and personal, that the land offers us. Across the series, Hilton uses light as a narrative force, capturing moments where the visible and the unspoken converge. Essential to the discourse of American landscape photography, Hilton captures the cloudrolls and the dancing light of the sky, offering her unique eye and impressions of the West to the discourse. Following recent stops on her Cowboys and Queens tour in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Tulsa, Lightfall marks a significant return for Hilton at Palo Gallery, offering a rare and richly textured survey of an artist whose work continues to illuminate the wealth legacy of the American west in photographs. Jane Hilton is an acclaimed English photographer and filmmaker celebrated for her evocative explorations of American culture, particularly the American West, which she has been documenting for over twenty-five years. Her work brings to life the extraordinary within ordinary people's realities, capturing intimate, thought-provoking narratives that challenge societal perceptions. Hilton's monographs include Dead Eagle Trail (Schilt Publishing, 2010), a profound portrayal of 21st-century cowboy life; Precious (Schilt Publishing, 2013), a series of intimate nude portraits of working girls in Nevada; and LA Gun Club(self-published, 2016), an examination of American gun culture featuring unique 'shot up' target posters. Fascinated by subjects that are legal yet socially controversial, Hilton’s career includes diverse projects such as Love for Sale (2000), a BBC-commissioned series documenting Nevada’s brothels, the only state in America where prostitution is legal. More recently, she spent eight years filming The Last Lion Tamer, following a family’s struggle to preserve their way of life as circus animal performances face legislative bans.