A Conversation between Anne Veh and Trish Carney, July 2011

Snow. Wind. Cold. Bear. Undisturbed.
Grizzly bear in snow storm, Yellowstone May 2011.
 

Anne Veh is an independent curator living in Mill Valley.

Trish Carney is a visual artist living in Marin County, California. She received a B.F.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an M.F.A. in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her passion for photography emerged after graduate school. Without a studio and feeling a little restless, she grabbed her camera and began shooting outdoors. The outdoors became her studio.

A CONVERSATION WITH ANNE VEH and TRISH CARNEY

On a warm July afternoon. Trish Carney and I met in Mill Valley to talk about her new body of work from her time in Yellowstone National Park. In May, Trish journeyed there for a two week pilgrimage to observe wildlife.

Before we sat down to talk, we ventured off on a nature walk to Stolte Grove, a hidden gem in Mill Valley I refer to as the “secret garden.” As we approached the trailhead, I noticed Trish’s pace was slow and deliberate. She would stop occasionally and casually point out the local wildlife, a tiny juvenile hummingbird perched on a telephone wire, a red tailed hawk camouflaged amongst the cedar pines. Her keen sense of observation and sensitivity to sound was astonishing. “This is what fascinates me.” She pointed to a shaded spot in the meadow, “I could easily sit under those trees for four or more hours and just watch the hawk. Who was the hawk communicating with? There were no other birds in sight, but his call was loud and insistent. After several minutes, the hawk jumped to a higher branch, spread his wings and flew across the valley, continuing to broadcast his seemingly urgent call. At that moment, I thought, perhaps we should have conducted this interview in nature! As it was, warm and relaxed from the afternoon hike, we returned to my back porch and sat down to discuss her work.

Anne:

What first inspired you to sit in nature?

Trish:

It is something I have always liked to do since I was a kid. But as far as going outside with the intent to make images, that happened after grad school. During art school I studied drawing and mixed media practices. I always had a camera and I used it primarily to document my art work or to take reference photos to work from. After grad school I did not have a studio space and I went through a period of not producing any new work. I got tired of making excuses, so I picked up my camera and began exploring the outdoors. Once I looked at being out in nature as being in my studio I got right back into visually responding and making images.

My first photographs developed into a series called, “How do I apologize?” The photographs were portraits of animals found dead; the majority featured road-killed animals that I found on a two-mile stretch of road near my home. At the time, I was reading Barry Lopez's Apologia, an essay exploring the moral and emotional upheaval he experienced during a cross-country road trip where he frequently stopped and removed road-killed animals from the roadways. I was moved and inspired by the essay and I attempted to make a series about respect, or the lack of it, for the animals that were just trying to get across a road to live their lives. The photographs were done in an artful way, mostly close up details of the fallen creatures using shallow depth of field. My perception of animals as beautiful and worthy was central to my aesthetic concerns in that particular body of work. What I was trying for in those pictures was a combination of beauty, sadness and a sense of reverence.

This series was also the catalyst for embracing animals, wildlife as my subject.

Anne:

What touches me about your work is the deep respect and sensitivity you have for animals and their environment, You seem to experience a real sense of place. In the stillness, you become part of the environment.

Trish:

It's a continual practice of being accepted and not invading another's privacy without permission and trying to be accepted by the place as well as by the creature. I’ll let the animal or person determine how much I get to watch, observe, and photograph. Reading body language and knowing when to back off is crucial. Sometimes I don't photograph at all and I just try to learn something about my subject. It is not always about coming home with an image. It's a delicate balance of respect and restraint.

Anne:

Respecting their habitat, their needs.

Trish:

Yes, it always comes down to respect and not interfering with their life cycles. To me, it’s a long-term relationship I am trying to cultivate. Granted it is a very one-sided relationship. The animals I observe and photograph have no desire to have anything to do with me but I do want to be in relation with them and I want to visually honor their presence, their importance.

Anne:

So much of our land has been developed and wilderness areas are few and far between. The wild is sacred land. In reading about your Yellowstone work, I was taken by your words, “ A place where I seek wildlife, solitude as well as the kinship with the like-minded nomadic tribe who are as drunk as I am with enthusiasm to witness wolf, bear, and all that is wild.” I think of the nomadic tribes, and the indigenous spirit; they listen and are guided by the wisdom of the land. It’s following an inner knowing, whatever form it takes, intuitively leading them to where they need to go. It’s honoring that spirit.

Trish:

Yes, in a place like Yellowstone, the folks I cross paths with are all there because we are all passionate about the wild spirit. And we all want to experience, celebrate and to learn from the wild. People from really different walks of life and, most likely with very different politics along with many other differences, but the common thread connecting us all is our deep love for and belief in wild places and the wildlife that inhabit those lands. This passion for the wild becomes a path to follow and to embrace. And it instructs on how to live and with whom.

Anne:

It’s in all of us, but we have forgotten. We’re having to find our way back. Your work is so powerful in what you don’t say or show, you sense it, you feel it, without having to say or talk about it.

Trish:

Thank you.

Anne:

I want to talk about your recent body of work with the owls. I was astonished to learn that these photographs were taken at dusk, in really low light when you can see just a silhouette of a shape, but not quite pitch black darkness. I imagine you sitting in stillness, trusting and listening, and honing those skills to commune with nature, to the point when you knew intuitively when to snap that picture. This becomes a powerful practice that I can imagine informs you on many levels.

Trish:

Yes. Patience, intuition, instinct, perseverance and all the time spent in observation of a subject informs and helps me anticipate what might happen and to be ready for those fleeting moments. When I am photographing in low light I think I am trying to portray the feeling of night and the essence of creatures during the transition time of light to night.

Anne:

What comes to mind is the need to create a new language, a kind of shared understanding. We don’t know how to articulate it yet, but it’s a deep respect, an honoring that begs the question, how do we coexist?

Trish:

Yes. Exactly. How do we co-exist? How do we see ourselves in relation to our wild neighbors? How do we live and share the planet with the rest of life? We need to not see nonhuman life as lesser than us or as simply vermin. We need to make room for wildlife so that they can live their lives. I think I am coming to terms with my subject. I always think of my subject as being about wildlife but I think what I really want to do is make work about respect and reverence and connection or the lack thereof. Where one puts their attentions is where one puts their love. I want to make images that speak to that.

Anne:

This speaks to your ability and your openness to be completely vulnerable. To sit and just be with what is, is quite profound. In that quiet space, without distraction, you are just with yourself, and you can drop down to a place that’s more heart-centered. In this place, we can communicate on a level that doesn’t need to be verbalized. You can pick up the energy, the feeling. In terms of our relationship with our own animals, we learn that. We don’t need to speak to it. It’s there. We can feel it palpably. We learn from animals more than we can consciously know, or acknowledge.

Trish:

Yes, I like to just sit, listen, observe. This is what I do most of the time I spend in nature. Not a whole lot happens yet everything is happening. For long stretches of time, I wait. And I wonder what the animals might be doing or where they might be. I listen to the sounds of animals. I watch animals watching other animals and this informs me a great deal. You posed a question to me earlier about how does my dog, Lamar inform my work. I do all I just mentioned with Lamar as well. He is my nonhuman companion 24/7. We just be- together. We just hang out. I watch him and he watches me. We are communicating all the time without speaking and we are really in sync energy-wise. And most importantly he embodies and is a constant reminder of the joy of just being, of being alive and being in the moment. So I think he informs my work and my life a great deal.

Anne:

I can speak to dogs from my own experience. I am always surprised when I come home after being gone 8 hours, and our two old Labradors greet me with such exuberance. How can you be so happy to see me after I have left you alone all day? I am awed by their compassion, that sense of being in the moment. It’s beautiful.

Trish:

Yes, dogs are just great! When I come home, I am greeted with the most enthusiastic ‘Hello, I’m so glad to see you! Hey, let me go get this really cool stick I found today…I want you to have it …oh but wait, I want it back…please throw it for me and I will bring it back to you and then we can do that all over again!” And what greater sight and form of communication than that of the happy wag of a dog’s tail!

Anne:

It’s joy.

Trish:

It’s love.

Anne:

Which makes me think of our true nature is to be joyful and full of love. Dogs 24/7 emote that.

Trish:

Absolutely. 
When I am photographing I never feel more in the moment and I just have so much fun being outside even if it looks like I am just sitting there. I am never happier than I am making images. And photographing in Yellowstone where so much wildlife converges and convenes and meeting people who are as enthusiastic about the place and the wildlife as I am… is definitely a place where I experience plenty of joy and camaraderie.

Anne:

The more you are with that feeling, that essence, the more you are willing to open up to it. And then you realize, there is so much more. Why do we create these constructs, these boundaries to really feel connected? It’s almost like life is there to support us, but we have a hard time trusting. What you have shared is that when you can sit in a wild place, and just be quiet, the life force is abundant, you are one with that.

Trish:

I am a life force, the bear is a life force, the land is a life force, we are part of one big life force and we are all the same.

Anne:

It is nourishing on such a deep level that it feeds our soul.

Trish:

Absolutely.

Anne:

I wonder why it has it taken us so long to realize this? I guess that’s a part of our journey. We can’t do it in a fast paced world. It doesn’t work. We can strategize, and try our best to move ahead, to live a full life, which we think is full. In reality, what we need is so basic and so simple. What feeds our soul is to slow down, and just be. It’s just about being.

Trish:

And getting back one’s sense of wonder. And let that sense of wonder flourish in your life. I find when I am in urban environments I have that ‘city nervousness’. I am distracted, on guard, doing way too much ‘multi-tasking’, over thinking just about everything. And when I can get outdoors or share in the camaraderie with kindred spirits such as in Yellowstone, I lose that nervousness and I feel more myself. I am at my best when I when I am out in wilder places.

Anne:

You find your people. When you find your community, you feel really full, joyful. And its reflected, it’s mirrored back to you.

Trish:

That’s a good way of putting it. Having it mirrored back, versus people feigning interest.

Anne:

What I love about your work is the lack of an agenda. You come with a keen sense of observation, a curiosity, a wonder, an openness of not knowing what you’re going to come across. That’s beautiful. Without an agenda, your awareness builds. You are completely open.

Trish:

Thanks. Whenever I try to force something on the images, it just never works. I would like my work to be more directly about conservation issues and I have tried taking a more photo journalistic approach but I always seem to return to a more lyrical approach to the subject. But hopefully my images do serve some purpose in relation to conservation by showing how passionate I am about the importance of wildlife and then in turn, maybe inspire some folks to care about why wildlife matters and why conservation of wildlife habitat is of critical importance.

Anne:

It’s really fun to talk with you at this point. I feel you are in this very fertile space practicing a form of meditation, of being in nature. You are trusting it, and more and more, and you are opening up to where it is taking you. And you don’t know where it might lead.

Trish:

Exactly. I don’t know where I may be going but all I know is I am being very productive and have a lot more work to do and I can’t wait to do it!

Anne:

When I look at your bear image from Yellowstone, I witness this beautiful strong, noble animal. He has a sway back. Perhaps he is an older bear. It’s difficult to tell age. There is a nobility. Standing solitary, out in a blizzard, I feel privileged to experience this bear in the moment.

Trish:

Yes, I remember that day and that particular bear. He was coming in and out of the fog. It was a day that went from full out, white out blizzard conditions, to hail, to rain, to light misty fog. The bear would come in and out of view. And I remember that the sight of the bear had a dream like quality. It bordered on reality and from the imagination as the bear emerged out of the misty fog. It was the shape of this dark bear that had such a presence, a presence of belonging and being an intrinsic part of the environment.

Anne:

That speaks to that sense of reverence. Because of the conditions, the image communicates this sense of proximity, and also this distance.

Trish:

The title of that image is “Listening to bear.” And it reminds me that every time I photograph an animal it becomes a lesson in humility and respect for their wild lives.

Anne:

When you say, “Listening to bear”, I get the sense you are listening on such a deep level, you are communing with another sentient being. We spoke earlier of needing a new language. What I hear you say is, “ I am “being” with you. I respect the “being” that you are. I see you, I respect you. I can now walk on”. It reminds me of the greeting, Namaste, “the spirit in me respects the spirit in you.” A reverence for life.

Trish:

YES, that is it exactly “the spirit in me respects the spirit in you.”!

Anne:

As we talk about the bear image, can you share your process and the collaborative spirit you have experienced at The Image Flow. What is it like to work with Stuart and Matt on the test prints for the exhibit? That back and forth you share with them seems very special.

Trish:

It’s really been wonderful. Stuart has been very supportive of my work. He has taken a big leap of faith, which is a wonderful feeling to have someone want to show your work, believe in your work, and trust that when you are back from on a trip that you will come back with some images that are worthy of showing. This Yellowstone exhibit has happened really fast. I was back from Yellowstone in early June and showed Stuart some images and then we started the selection and printing process.

Anne:

From my experience, The Image Flow provides a space for experimentation, encourages new processes, and embraces the creative experience in a collaborative and very organic way.

Trish:

Yes, it’s a very supportive and collaborative environment. I usually know what I want and what I am after in a print and they help me get it. It was a great experience working with Matt on the test prints and on the final prints.

Anne:

Stuart brings such a generous spirit to The Image Flow. His gesture communicates: Come on in and let’s experiment. That experimentation and openness is very casual and organic, and allows the creativity to be very vibrant. He also respects your boundaries and focus as an artist. He provides the support you need. He recognizes your gift is to be in nature.

Trish:

Yes, It is definitely a very cool place that welcomes and supports artists by supporting their vision. I’m very happy that Stuart wanted to do a show of some of my images. Image Flow has been a very good catalyst to spring into action and get some work on the walls quickly. I look forward to taking a step back and seeing the work in this context.

Anne:

To circle back to the beginning of our conversation, you speak of the wonder you experience when photographing wild life This sense of wonder and reverence extends to the personal captions that accompany each image in your current exhibition at The Image Flow. I am reminded of the writings of Terry Tempest Williams and her poetic ruminations on nature.

Trish:

Yes, I am very influenced by Terry Tempest Williams and she is one of my favorite authors and I constantly return to her work for words of wisdom. I really like something I read from an interview she gave sometime after 9/11, she said something along these lines, “It is no longer about the survival of the fittest but about the survival of compassion— we need to extend our humanity to include honor and respect for plants, animals, rocks, rivers, and air…” and so on. That to me, is what I always come back to…connecting to compassion and respect for all life. If I haven’t been out for awhile and getting restless I read writers like Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass and Doug Peacock and they ground me and remind me of what matters and what I want to make work about.

Anne:

It has been a great honor and a lot of fun to have this conversation Thank you for your generous spirit in sharing your inspiration, your process and your deep commitment and passion for all living beings. Congratulations on a strong body of work. I cant wait to see more.

Trish:

Thank you Anne. It has been an absolute pleasure and loads of fun hanging out with you and talking about wildlife and art. And also thanks for sharing Stolte Grove with me. It is a special place and it was a special time walking with you among the redwoods.

To learn more visit www.trishcarney.com. Trish Carney’s images from Yellowstone will be on view through end of August at The Image Flow in Mill Valley, CA.