t h e a l t e r e d l a n d s c a p e • 89

CLOSE TO HOME: Photographs of the Upper Snake River Valley

Darren Clark—Department of Art

“The beautiful places to which we journey for inspiration surprise us by the melancholy they can induce…that which bothers us about primordial beauty is that it is no longer characteristic. Unspoiled places sadden us because they are, in an important sense, no longer true.”

–Robert Adams

Most landscape photographers make specific trips to grand locations to search for spectacular photographs. I’m much more interested

in the landscape between these locations. We live in a between location. Rexburg is between the Tetons to the east and the Salmon River Wilderness to the west. We live between Yellowstone National Park to the north and the Great Salt Lake to the south. My images are about fostering an appreciation for the place I live.

I teach photography and most of my students have the same complaint; “there’s nothing to photograph in Rexburg.” They think if they could travel to the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, or the Oregon coast, they could make spectacular photographs. Occasionally students do travel during the semester. The photographs made during these travels are usually the most boring, most obvious, and most derivate photographs I see during the semester. The same could be said for most professional landscape photography. I believe those who are familiar and comfortable with their surroundings make the most meaningful and lasting images.

My most important photographs have come to me in much the same way prayers are answered. They come after diligent searching, and when I least expect them. They are generally quiet in nature, but their clarity is unmistakable. The only way I can make these photographs is to search. I don’t make a photograph every time I search, but these searches are never in vain. Being out in the light is a worthwhile experience in and of itself. This selection of photographs is a record of my wanderings and searches throughout the Upper Snake River Valley.

The places I choose for inspiration are less than ideal. Most of the land has been cleared for agriculture, I often find discarded shotgun shells and makeshift garbage dumps, and the Snake River is damned and diverted. However, making photographs in a marred landscape is a troubling prospect. The irreverence with which we treat our land is disappointing. Nevertheless, tires, plowed fields, and the haze of pollution are often seductive photographic subjects. This is not because of some implied environmental message, but rather that photography is capable

I believe those who

are familiar and

comfortable with

their surroundings

make the most

meaningful and

lasting images.

90 • p e r s p e c t i v e

of transforming these less than ideal places into objects of intrigue and beauty.

I have often wondered if I am not glorifying or promoting the destruction and alteration of the landscape that I depict by making beautiful and inviting images of such places. In truth, I hope my photographs advocate an appreciation for the landscape as it is, and reveal the strength and resilience of this place and its inhabitants.

These photographs are about meaning, hope, and beauty found within an altered, damaged, and neglected landscape. In spite of the impact absorbed by the land, I am hesitantly optimistic. The quality of light, the adaptation and abundance of wildlife, the power of weather, and the resilience of this place continue to surprise and delight. We need to understand and reconcile ourselves with our surroundings. If a land is not worthy of admiration, how can it be deserving of preservation?

90 • p e r s p e c t i v e

Hay Bale on Rock Pile, Newdale, Idaho, 2001

Irrigation Canal, St. Anthony, Idaho, 2001

Diversion Dam, Fremont County, Idaho, 2001

Irrigation Pivot, Walker, Idaho, 2001

Teton View Drive-in, Rexburg, Idaho, 2001

Russian Olive and Magpie Nest, Menan, Idaho, 2001

Birch in Snow, Walker, Idaho, 2001

Cottonwoods, Teton County, Idaho, 2001