Mentored by the Land with Donald S. Clark

In this episode of The Heart Path Podcast, we learn about Professor and Photographer, Donald S. Clark, and his adventure in photographing places across the US that have inspired historic and contemporary nature writers John Muir, Rachel Carson, Phillip Connors, Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez, Pam Houston and more. 

After fifteen years of planning and several years of photography, camping, and collaboration, Clark created the book, "Nature's Writers: Mentored by the Land," which celebrates forty-four nature writers and the landscapes they've preserved through their words and their books.  

Bio: Donald S. Clark is a Professor of Art/Photography at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He has been teaching photography for 29 years and making images for more than 39 years. The majority of his work focuses on environmental and landscape issues. He is also interested in the relationships of people in their environment and how these relationships affect culture. He has exhibited his work throughout the United States and internationally. He currently lives in Lake Park, Minnesota. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome to the Heartpath Podcast. I'm your host, Yvonne Ellis. The Heartpath Podcast spotlights authors, change makers, nature lovers, and creators of all kinds. Each of our podcasts aimed to share interviews and stories of beauty, resilience, and inspiration for all.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Thank you so much, Don, for joining me on the Heart Path podcast. It's a pleasure to have you here. And I can't wait to hear the story of how you created Mentored by the Land. I would love to start with how you came up with this idea.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Well, first, thanks to you for inviting me. The project actually came about from a meeting with my dean probably about 15 years ago. I teach at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. And I was sitting down for my four-year evaluation, and my dean, Peter Quigley, asked me what I was going to be doing in the near future, project-wise. And I said, well, I'm kind of in between, not really sure. And Peter was a Robinson Jeffers scholar. And so he thought maybe we should get together and work on a project where I was photographing Robinson Jeffers' places in California. And he would write about it. And so we were sitting there for a few minutes talking about this. And I thought, even better, maybe we expand it to nature writers in general in the U.S. And he liked the idea. And sure enough, about six months later, he took another job.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

So I sat on the idea for years and finally put together a faculty grant for 2019 to photograph the East Coast New England states primarily, because I knew several of those historic figures. And so I began researching and lined up eight writers' places to visit, both historic and contemporary. And that began it all. It was basically about a five-year project photographing. My very first contemporary writer was Aki Bush. She wrote a book called The Nine Ways to Cross a River. And then it kept going from there, snowballed from there. So lots of fun, just a great time.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Oh, that sounds so good. So what did that look like? What did your schedule look like when you went to these different places? Were you teaching in between?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

The first bit in the New England states was over the summer of 19. And so I spent about two months on the road with a little camper I have and started with Gene Stratton Porter in Indiana and worked my way over. I had three contemporary writers, Aki Bush, Ted Hoglin, and Robert Finch on Cape Cod. So logistically, it's really quite a challenge to line up everyone back to back so that I'm using my time as wisely as possible to make sure I give myself enough time at each place to do justice and also to put in some fun time for me. Well, photographing is fun, but I want it to enjoy this beyond photographing too. A big part of it is working with the writers to identify additional places of theirs. For each writer, I made sure that I read at least two books of theirs.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

To feel for whether the place was really important because that's what this book is all about. It's all about their places. And so uh yeah, at least two books. And so it's been a quite an investment. I've got a about a 300-book library of nature writers.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Logistically was quite a challenge, but surprisingly, it all worked out really well. With New England being my first, I tried to give myself a little bit of flexibility there. I wasn't sure really how long I needed at each place, but I thought about four nights would probably work. And so each place I invested at least four nights. Some writers' places are multiple areas you can't get to in one day. Um and so, yes, some of them have multiple states that I visited. Um a lot of fun over the five years, but logistically quite a challenge. 29 states in those five years, and ended up being tent camping because gas prices were high and I was traveling a lot, and so I didn't want to haul a trailer around. Um, yeah, I figured over 200 nights camping.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Wow. Nice work. Yeah. That's a great way to get into it too, right? To get inspired about taking photos of places to actually stay in those places is great.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah, I kind of love to travel. I was an army break, so I lived all over the place, and I'm just inclined to enjoy seeing new places. And the opportunity to meet with those riders in person, I got to meet a lot of my heroes.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

A lot of years.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

So I would love to know who those heroes are.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Well, historic first, I guess. Of course, John Muir, Rachel Carson. Actually, Rachel Carson was one of the early places in the New England states. Up in Maine, I got to actually stay in her house by the sea.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

I was looking up connections to Rachel, and I found her nephew, who she raised after his mother passed away.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

And he still owns her house. And they actually rent the house out to anyone. They don't advertise really that it's Rachel Carson's house. They just kind of keep that on the down low. Uh, my daughter was living in western Massachusetts. And so I contacted them and said, Hey, can I get out here? I'm going to be in the area. And somebody was staying at the house whenever I was going to be through there. And they left it up to the person who was going to be staying there. And he seemed receptive, and then all of a sudden he wasn't. So I didn't get to go in 18. And I contacted them again in 19 whenever I was getting ready to do the big push. And they said, sure, we've got a period of time where we don't have anyone. You're welcome to stay there for however many nights you want it. So I said, give me four. And so I got to hang out, sit in her desk where she would write.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Just really cool. And then go down to the ocean and hang out in the tidal pools that she used to hang out in.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

So that's so cool. I love that. And I'm wondering what it was like to sit in her chair. What was that like? Did you feel connected to her in some way through that?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yeah, definitely. And whenever you're in these places that they love so much, yeah, I think it kind of translates, especially for somebody who has admired those people in their writing. So yeah, historic figures like Rachel, I mentioned John Muir, uh Aldo Leopold, and so many of these people, including the contemporary writers. One of the things that I really wish I would have done whenever I first started the project was keep track of these connections that they each have, because it'd be this web throughout the country. So many of these writers are influenced by each other, both historic and contemporary figures. So yeah, it's pretty exciting. The contemporary writers, um, whenever I started the project, I had a few in mind: Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass, who I went to Utah State University. And so Rick actually graduated a few years before I started there. So I knew his work and I was really excited to try to get him. Some of them were hard to get at times. Terry Tempest Williams, she's just a lot of these people are just so busy that I was kind of amazed that I could get a lot of them talked into it. Some of them were very easy, like surprisingly, Barbara Kingsolver. I love her writing. And doing research on her, I had looked at her website and on her website it said, I love fan mail, but frankly, I just don't have time to answer anything. So don't take it personal if I don't get back with you, something to that effect. That was the only means I could figure out in terms of contacting her. So I sent an email through her website and explained my work and sent her to my website. Luckily, the assistant liked my work and forward it to Barbara, and Barbara saw it and was excited about it and just said, come on over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

That's great. So did you meet with her?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I did get to sit with her. And this was during COVID, too. So I happened to have sabbatical during COVID, 2021.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

Good timings.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

So I did the southern leg of my trip in the winter of 21. She was one of the last ones that I had on that leg. So I got to sit down with her on a porch from a distance and talk to her about her places. And then her and her husband, Steven, walked me around their property, which is just this beautiful spot in Virginia. I got to hang out with some really great people. Barry Lopez was really excited about it. I was due to go out and visit Barry in September of 20. And I was actually driving to his place, and I was in Boise, Idaho, and I stopped and checked my email. And I had an email saying that my campground reservations by where he lived were canceled due to fires.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

I knew all the fires were happening out in the West. So I immediately tried calling the lines dead. I only had his landline. And so I went back. My wife's family is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. So went back there and got with all the other people I was supposed to meet with on that trip in the Northwest. And I just said, because of the fires, I'm going to postpone this until later on. And I sent Barry an actual snail mail letter to the post office, which I knew had burned down. So I thought, well, it'll maybe get to him at some point in time. So this was September in I think late October, early November, I had a call from him on my voicemail asking me to call him back. And so I gave him a call. And he said, Yeah, our house survived, our guest house survived, my archives there were destroyed. And I think a lot of his archives were already at Texas Tech. So I think a good chunk was already there.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Oh good.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

And he said all the big trees on his property were destroyed. And I said, Well, do you do you mind if I still come out and photograph? And he said, Yeah, no, it's important. Go ahead and do that. But not now. I said, No, we'll do it in late spring if that's good with you. He said, Yeah, just let me know ahead of time and we'll make arrangements. And he passed away Christmas Day.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

So I really wanted to meet Barry in person. He was excited about the project. And I've read his work back in the university. I think Crossing Open Ground was my first book I read of his. Yeah. So that was really disappointing. Luckily, his wife, Deborah, was willing to let me come out onto the property in it was like May that I came out. Though it was really tough because she was going to be there taking care of logistics in his passing. And so my time was really limited. She gave me basically two days. And so I thought I can make that work. But unfortunately, I was traveling on the morning of the first day. So I got there in the afternoon and I got a really nice evening at his place. And then the next day just poured rain. No chance of photographing that day at all. Um, but I thought that's kind of fitting, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

Yeah, it's so fitting for Mackenzie River area. It just rains out there. I actually was working in a fire lookout that season. There were fires everywhere throughout work in that season, and they were mega fires just going out of control because the land had been suppressed for so long. Um so I knew exactly what you're talking about. And what gave me hope through that is one day I was driving over by Mackenzie River, and I saw all those black trees and just all that char everywhere from the fires. And there were these sunflowers that were growing in a ditch. And I just thought, okay, life is still here. There's still hope. And, you know, every time those fires would happen in communities in Oregon, everyone came together in such a beautiful way, too, that that gave me hope as well. But I'm sorry you didn't get to meet Barry in person. That's such a bummer, and I'm sorry that he passed. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

A lot of big names were willing to help me out, a lot of lesser-known names, which I think uh write every bit as well. Like Scott Freeman in Washington State wrote a book called Saving Tarbu Creek, which is really pretty incredible. And his wife, uh speaking of all these connections that there are, his wife is Susan Freeman Leopold.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Whoa!

SPEAKER_00 15:11

She's the daughter of Aldo Leopold. And I think if I recall right, Scott worked at the Aldo Leopold property at a while, and maybe that's how they met out that way, but just wonderful people. They walked me through their properties. Um, yeah, just great time.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Oh, I love it. What a cool project. And your book is just absolutely beautiful. I love all the photos that you've taken and shared with everyone and the quotes and the preface by Camille. It's just so good.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

I feel really lucky. I actually have to give a little credit to Bill McGibbon because Bill, whenever I met with him, we were sitting down in his place in the Adirondags and having lemonade. And he said, What do you hope to do with this work? And I told him I'm, of course, going to show the work, exhibit the work whenever I can, but ultimately I'd like it to be in book form because you can reach more people that way. And he said, Well, whenever you're ready to search for a publisher, let me know. I've got a connection at Rosoli. And so a year or two later, I was starting to research different publishers and their specs for submissions. And then I thought, oh, Bill said he could give me a name. I had looked at Rosoli's submission guidelines, but I thought maybe I can just see if they might be interested without doing all the work. So I got the name of the publisher there and sent him an email, uh, gave him my website and told him about the project. And about a week later, he contacted me saying, Hey, can we see some more stuff? And then within about a month or so, I had a contract. So I the one place I sought out, I got a contract. So you never, never hear of anything like that. So thank you, Bill.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Thank you, Bill.

unknown 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Wonderful. Oh, what a gift. That's so great. And your book is a coffee table book. So it's just so nice to know that there's still publishers out there that are creating coffee table books of photography. One of my favorite books from back in the day that's kind of like yours, is On the Loose. Do you remember that book?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

No.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

So it was published by the Sierra Club. And it was these two brothers that were traveling around the West. And they wrote very minably throughout the book, but it was all in calligraphy, and it was photos of them on their adventures together. And what's so beautiful about it is that one of the brothers actually passed. And so they were able to have this book of their adventures together before that happened. And it's one of my most cherished books. So it's kind of in the lineage of where you're at. But you're actually celebrating all nature writers across the US and yours, not all, but many. I can't say all.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Oh no, there's a lot. There are several more that I tried to get involved who for various reasons declined. I did have one writer, I won't mention names, who declined because of death threats to her all the time. So she didn't want her personal place known.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

That's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

And then others just time-wise, you know, they're busy and I understand that.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

So yeah, I get that for sure. And the same with me with the heart path. When I reach out to people, I just never know what's gonna work and not work. So I was wondering about crazy stories. If you have any crazy stories of your travels, crazy stories.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

I ran into a bear on a trail by Ted Hoagland's in Vermont. I was up on this trail and stopped to photograph, and then right below me, maybe 50 or so feet, a bear came out from this rock and started grunting and went the opposite way. But yeah, nothing terribly scary most of the time. Ted Hoagland was a lot of fun because he thought I wanted him to go up to his places in North Vermont. I said, no, no, I just need to access because that's really important to me is to be able to photograph where they live, even if it's just a suburban home. I wanted to photograph on the property whenever I could. There were a few occasions where I could not, but most of the time I was able to do that. So I said, Yeah, it's not about you being there. I just need your help identifying more places. And Ted was just great. He said, Well, if you need a place to stay, you're welcome to stay at this old farmhouse that he had where he did a lot of his writing. He said, All you have to do is on the side, there's a window that we keep open. You can just pull it up and go in. I said, That's really nice, but I've got a trailer and I'll be fine. I could see myself going up there and the neighbor catching me going in through the window and uh going after me. So yeah. Uh fun times. Speaking of lookout, I photographed Philip Connor's places. I'm sure you know his work.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah. So I made it a point to be able to go up to the lookout tower where he works. And the road into the trailhead, the pass was closed because of the fires and a washout, I guess, a year before. And uh so myself, Phil, and his wife Monica drove about two hours around the way, and he has a key to the gate to get him into the highway so that we could go up to the trailhead, which was at about 8,000 feet.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

And his lookout is about 10,000 or so feet. And uh during this trip, I've had some health issues, a little apib. And so thinking about going from 8,000 to 10,000 feet made me a little nervous, especially backpacking up there, but made it just fine thanks to Monica constantly looking out for me. I don't know if she knew that I had apib concerns. I don't know if I'd mentioned that or not. But uh she was uh great making sure I made it up there. Then spent a couple days up there and then went back down to a place in town that I was able to photograph. Nice. But yeah, Phil and Monica both are just wonderful people.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

I definitely read his book while I was writing my book.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Have you ever met Phil?

SPEAKER_03 22:19

No, but you know, I actually was thinking maybe I should ask him for an interview.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah, he'd be great. Do you know Lyanda Lynn? However, she wrote a book on finding nature in your backyard several years back, and she's got a book called Root It that came out just before I started photographing her places. But yeah, I just went and photographed her backyard because it's really important to her. And then photographed some other areas around there that were important to her and got to hang out with her in I think it's Lincoln Park in Seattle.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Oh fun.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

And she talks about in her book, Rooted, taking off her shoes and really feeling the earth. And so in that spirit, we both took off our shoes for a while walking in the park. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

You did some grounding. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Thank you, Dawn, for creating this amazing book.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah, thanks to Rosoli for being willing to do that.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

Thank you, Rosoli. Well, I'm so glad that I was able to talk with you today and hear about your adventures and making this book possible.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Thanks again for the invite. I really appreciate it. It's fun getting to chat with you a bit.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

You too.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

And hopefully down the road we uh get to uh meet each other in person.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Heck yeah, maybe we could have a nature writing party.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

That sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Well, thank you so much, Don, for your time today.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Keep up the good work.

SPEAKER_03 23:51

Thank you. I appreciate it.