In its 20th year, the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series has been a great way to have scientists at the top of their field present to a captivated audience.
The series is continuing again this winter, and the Tyrrell has lined up an array of researchers and, in one case, a photographer.
Andre Gogol has roots in the valley. While he grew up in Calgary, his grandfather toiled in the Star Mine, and his father was raised in the valley.
As a youngster, he would travel to the valley where his grandmother lived and he would run riot through the hills. These are fond childhood memories.
With those days in the past, he has since gone on and, in 2023, he was working on his Master of Art Education degree and a professor challenged him to get out of the studio to work with subject matter he really cared about.
“Immediately I thought of Drumheller,” he said.
“I have had this long history here, and I thought what a fantastic excuse to go back,” said Gogol.
In 2023, he contacted the museum, and he made connections with the Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology Francois Therrien.
“He was working with some fantastic Hadrosaur skin samples and I said ‘Please let me shoot these, I am happy to share anything I make with you… I would just like to have a chance to photograph them.’”
The photos were well received and he continued on and even came back again, this time he had the chance to shoot the famous Black Beauty tyrannosaurus rex skull.
He employed a number of techniques in his work including focus stacking. This is where multiple images are combined to create an image with great detail, in some cases using 150 files to make one finished image.
A while later he was approached again and last year an exhibit of his work called Perspectives 2024 – Fossil Photography by Andre Gogol appeared at the Tyrrell.
“Ever since I was that young kid crawling around I always had this association of discovery with dinosaurs. To me, finding a little shard of something in the hills is so exciting and then to get these complete species that have been beautifully prepared… and then to image this as part of a living creature in a world that has long ago left us, I am just captivated by it.”
Gogol will be the featured presenter at Speaker Series on Wednesday, February 26 at 11 a.m.