Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture presents: "Heritage Trees and Scenic Vistas of the Emerald Necklace"

Mayor Martin J. Walsh today announced that Boston photographer Erik Gehring's exhibition "Heritage Trees and Scenic Vistas of the Emerald Necklace," will be on display from July 1 - August 7, 2015 at the Mayor's Neighborhood Gallery on the 2nd floor of City Hall.

In the spring of 2014, Gehring was asked by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's Olmsted Tree Society to photograph the Necklace's Heritage Trees, some of the largest and oldest tree specimens in the parks (not including those in the Arboretum). These trees were identified as part of the comprehensive Emerald Necklace Tree Inventory, Assessment and Management Plan spearheaded by the Olmsted Tree Society in 2013.

"I was very pleased to have gotten this opportunity, as I have focused my creative energies at the Arnold Arboretum for so many years and I was looking for an excuse to broaden my horizons," said Gehring. "It was wonderful being able to explore and photograph the rest of the Emerald Necklace."

Gehring is an award-winning photographer, the current president of the Boston Camera Club and a devoted environmental advocate. He grew up in Wellesley and now lives in the Roslindale with his wife Julie and sons Carl and William.  He has shown his work extensively throughout eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and he has given lectures and taught classes in digital photography at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, the Arnold Arboretum, the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, the Hyde Park Art Association in Hyde Park and the Concord Art Association in Concord.

View Gehring's portfolio online at www.erikgehring.com/WebReady/Pages/EmNeckHome.html.

For more information, please visit the Emerald Necklace Conservancy athttp://www.emeraldnecklace.org.

The Galleries at Boston City Hall are open the public at no charge and are handicapped accessible. City Hall Plaza is accessible by MBTA via Haymarket (Orange and Green), State Street (Orange and Blue) or Park Street (Green and Red). For more information, call 617-635-3245 or visit www.cityofboston.gov/arts.