Sometimes it takes a village to make an image.

December 09, 2017 in Fine Art, environmental photography

Or at least some friends that aren't afraid to get into the river on a December afternoon. This image has been living inside my head for about a month.

Dance for the River is now officially on the road, opening next at SECCA Febuary 8th 2018. So, the photo shoots officially ended this past summer. But then this image popped in my head and wouldn't go away, plus I wanted to round out my series with a few winter scenes. Thank goodness this first weekend in December was warm, 65 degrees warm. One week later we have 6 inches of snow!

This project has been an incredible journey for me, and this last shoot could not have happened without the help of my photography friends, Dave and Lauren Clark with DesiLu photo and Ward Swann from Outdoor Provision Company that offered to put his beautiful new canoe on the river for me and show up ready for adventure in a dry suit and nylon line to make sure our dancers did not float downstream without a paddle! I think even with the swanky looking dry suit, Ward got cold hanging out in the river for 30 minutes while I waited for the dancers, boat and river to align perfectly.

And of course the amazing UNCSA dancers, Elizabeth and Claire Finfgeld. I feel incredibly lucky to have so much support for this project. and I'm super excited to add this new work to the exhibit when it opens at SECCA.

Agriculture and the Yadkin

August 05, 2017

We got off the river last month and took a closer look at some hidden threats the Yadkin RiverKeeper keeps a close monitor on in efforts to keep our water source clean. We were given permission to shoot in an abandoned chicken houses that are now re-purposed to house young cows and honeybee hives where they are given more protection from the weather in colder months.

Poultry farms such as this one, produce tons of manure a year, and with that large amounts of nitrogen and phosphates, which often seep into the watershed when applied to farm fields for fertilizer. This can pollute the river and its tributaries

Along with taking water samples near these farms, Riverkeepers also try and build good relationships with cattle farmers and promote projects to fence in farmland and install wells for water in efforts to prevent cattle to going to the river for water. Cows defecating into the water is not the main issue to the river. Bank erosion from the cows going to the water, creates silt in the river.

Dance for the River Summer Series

July 11, 2017 in Fine Art, environmental photography

It's been a busy summer and the Dance for the River series is about wrapped up and I'm already thinking how hard it will be to choose only 25 images to build the exhibition this fall. It's been such a journey to explore this river with the dancers and with our Yadkin Riverkeeper, Will Scott. I've learned a lot about threats to our river and the importance to make a stand in some way for clean water. It's a gift that should be protected.

My first of three shoots began inside a 3' pipe kneeling in a trickle of water that is the beginning of the mighty Yadkin.

The trickle flows out of the pipe into a small creek surrounded by a road crew doing a major expansion on Hwy 321 in Blowing Rock.

The creek becomes a river as it joins the Tailwaters at Kerr Scott Dam where it becomes the drinking source for Winston-Salem.

From the Tailwaters it travels through Ronda and Elkin, once a hub for many textile industries and mills along the river. I was chasing a rumor about cows in the river. A major threat to the river is agricultural run off which causes of silt in the river. I didn't find any cows bathing in the river on this float, but I did find new home construction that had clear cut a path through the buffer of the river. Buffers are as important as fencing in cattle in terms of protecting from erosion and run off.

While this section seemed isolated, we had a few reminders of civilization by the intake pipes for the town of Ronda's drinking water.

The last shoot took us under I-85 where the Yadkin River empties into several lake, finally resting in Badin Lake near Salisbury.

So, get out on your rivers and creeks and learn about ways we can come together to protect them.

Narrows Dam

March 09, 2017 in environmental photography, Documentary photography, Fine Art

For 90 years, Alcoa owned and operated an aluminum smelter along the banks the Yadkin River, specifically Badin Lake. During that time, cyanide, fluoride, PCB’s, PAH’s and other toxins, including arsenic, were generated and disposed of through Alcoa’s 13 outfall pipes into Badin Lake and outfalls into Little Mountain Creek. Hazardous materials were also buried throughout the community of Badin at 44 identified locations, without liners. Buried waste continues to contaminate ground and surface water around the old Badin smelter.

Now under new stewardship, with Cube Hydro Carolinas LLC, the river has a newpurpose, but Badin and High Rock lake still have a long way to go to heal it's waters from decades of pollution.

My shoot last month with two dancers from Helen Simoneau Danse was a stark contrast to earlier shoots I've done on the Yadkin where water flows freely.

“I felt a sense of blocking, but I was also listening to what the space once was before so much pollution and non-organic activity was there. It was as if I was trying to listen to the memory of that kind of spirit. Hoping it was still underneath, hoping it will come back in the future. So I think I was mostly focused on the little heartbeat that I heard there.”

— Jasmine Hearn

“I felt very small in that space. The energy felt very sickly and I didn’t feel a lot of life coming out of that water. The water seemed to only be moving when humans flipped a switch to turn the movement on. So, today I did feel somewhat stifled in my movement.”

— Burr Johnson

Peters Creek, clean water begins in the watersheds.

January 26, 2017 in Fine Art, Documentary photography, environmental photography

This month's "Dance for the River" shoot had us splashing through Peter's creek, which is one of the creeks in the Yadkin River watershed and it's health is directly tied to the health of our river. We started in a tunnel that runs past Brunson Elementary. It is lined with graffiti and the water runs around building material, clothes, toys and even a few shopping carts filled with debris. We ended beneath one of the old Hanes plants, where earlier this month an industrial dye spill turned the creek water red.

clothes, trash, plastic and even bicycle wheels are wedged under rocks and other building material in Peters Creek, which runs through Hanes Park and through the west end of Winston-Salem

“The city creeks of the Winston-Salem are some of the most used by our kids and animals. Whether it is the schools lining Peters Creek or the dog beach of Salem Creek, these are parts of the Yadkin watershed that people use every day. As the industrial dye spill into Peters Creek on January 24th, 2017 showed, these creeks are still threatened by industrial pollution. We owe it to our urban creeks to protect them from trash and pollution-these should be playgrounds not dumping grounds.

”

— Will Scott, Yadkin Riverkeeper