Chris Gauthier’s photography has always had a message. For years, it was the message of others, but at a certain point Gauthier had an epiphany and decided to devote the skills he had learned in the advertising industry to the things he wanted to say. It was after a move to Utah, where Gauthier took a teaching position at Utah State University and he experienced his first winter in a smog-laden valley that he found his subject. Ever since, Gauthier has been creating bodies of work in collaboration with wife Jacqueline that examine health and the environment, advocating for issues both local and global. The Gauthier’s Facing Autism series, inspired by experiences with their own children, garnered Chris a Visual Art Fellowship from Utah Arts & Museums this year, and the couple is currently engaged in a project to examine the health consequences of building a residential neighborhood next to a medical wast incinerator in North Salt Lake’s Foxboro neighborhood.

This profile was made possible with financial support from Utah Arts & Museums.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.