Park City’s Newest Gallery Pushes the Boundaries of Photography

Photo: Meyer Gallery

PARK CITY, Utah — The moment you step into Chris O’Connell’s newly opened gallery, something shifts. The walls are lined with landscapes that feel both familiar and foreign—forests seem to swirl with movement, trees bend in ways the eye doesn’t expect, and light filters through leaves like it’s alive. It’s photography, yet it isn’t. It’s something more.

O’Connell, a Park City resident, is best known as the co-founder of Armada Skis, a company that revolutionized freeskiing. But after years spent capturing skiers carving through backcountry powder, his career took a sharp turn. Following the tragic loss of his best friend and business partner, legendary skier JP Auclair, in an avalanche ten years ago, O’Connell found himself questioning everything. His job, his art, even his purpose.

He began experimenting with a technique that involves moving the camera during a long exposure, capturing both the stillness and motion of a landscape in a single shot. The result? His signature “Psiloscapes”—a fusion of landscape photography and the altered perception psilocybin can induce. The name itself is a nod to both his process and his experience: ‘Psil’ for psilocybin, and ‘scapes’ for landscapes.

…one of those moments that happen maybe a few times in your life—where you know you’re onto something.

Excerpted from Townlift – February 6, 2025
By Marina Knight