Spring Boat. Homewood.

Passing this along from the League to Save Lake Tahoe:

Boating on Tahoe This Summer?
Do Your Part

An infestation of invasive mussels is an immediate threat to Lake Tahoe this summer.  The quagga and zebra mussels reproduce and colonize quickly and if introduced to Lake Tahoe would do irreparable damage to our ecosystem.

The League is urging all users of Lake Tahoe to limit their boating to “dedicated” boats – that is, to use ONLY boats and accessories (including kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, and other flotation devices) that are used SOLELY on Lake Tahoe, and not on other water bodies.  We know this is a sacrifice for many, but we think it is the right thing to do – the risk to Lake Tahoe is enormous, and both boating and beach enjoyment could be lost for all if these invaders infest and establish themselves here.

Boat inspectors have already discovered a number of invasive species on boats attempting to launch at Lake Tahoe.  Luckily, the boats have been quarantined and decontaminated.  But we all must realize that often times quagga and zebra mussels can be extremely difficult to see – please help us to protect Lake Tahoe by taking the following precautions:
• If you’re planning to launch a boat from shore and the boat has been in any other body of water, be sure to clean, drain, and dry it completely.  Give it a thorough visual inspection.  If you notice anything suspicious, take it to a public boat launch where it can be examined by a certified inspector.  Click here for boat launch hours and info.
• All public boat launches and marinas are now staffed by a boat inspector who examines boats for evidence of mussels.  Boat launches are only open when an inspector is present.  Click here for hours of public boat launches.
• Inspection fees for motorized boats range from $10-60 depending on the size of boat.   All funds go directly to the inspection program.  There is currently no charge to inspect a nonmotorized watercraft.
For more information, visit www.protecttahoe.org. Thanks for helping to Keep Tahoe Blue and mussel free!

Impromptu Boundary

After the loss of his studio and archives to bankruptcy, Carleton Watkins began work on his New Series, where upon he re-photographed the West and rebuilt and expanded his photographic archive. A commission by the Hearst Mining Company brought him to Virginia City, Nevada. Watkins also photographed mining operations near Markleeville, California and Carson City, Nevada, railroad and water projects near Donner Summit, and hydraulic mining operations further west in California’s Gold Country.

While passing through Lake Tahoe he would take pictures of the resorts, as well as general lake views. He would also take portraits for the lumberjacks employed in the Tahoe Basin logging timber for the mines of the Comstock Lode.

Included in Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty, alongside the Twain essays are a selection of Watkins New Series Tahoe photographs provided by the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the UC Berkeley campus. We only had space for a small number of images in Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty, yet Phoebe Hearst’s collection of 140 Watkins photographs are the basis for the museum’s photography collection. I strongly encourage readers to visit the Phoebe Hearst Museum and the Online Archive of California to see more of Watkins’ photography from the area. As one fascinated by how the land speaks to our relationship with nature and the environment, I find the photography of Virginia City and Markleeville particularly engaging.

In general, I find Watkins’ work captivating. During the late-19th Century, his photography gave eastern audiences important views of a western landscape they were only able to read about, leading, ultimately, to the founding of Yosemite and other national parks. Today, these photographs offer another important first glimpse – for us. Watkins allows us to look back upon the land, exactly at the arrival of our industrial culture. The Gold Rush was the first human migration in history blessed so. It was a time not so long ago.

3 Minutes on the Fourth of July

Here’s an interesting post from the Tahoe Divers Conservancy.  They are alarmed at the growth they are witnessing in the shallows of  Emerald Bay.

Scientists believe the growth being found in the near shore areas of Emerald Bay are the same algae found in the streams, and not the invasive species found near the marinas.  Due to the warm drought conditions this year, algal growth is on the increase.

Boat Rack. Homewood, California.

This winter, concerns over effects of 130 years of invasive species in Lake Tahoe heated up when concern over the pervasive quagga mussle led to an agreement that all boats must be cleaned before being launched into Tahoe’s crystal clear waters.  Restrictions on boat launches have been put in place. Please support the League to Save Lake Tahoe’s more comprehensive measures.

Information on Lake Tahoe’s invasive aquatic species can be found at the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, the League To Save Lake Tahoe, and this presentation by University of Nevada’s Sudeep Chandra.

This issue of invasive species is by no means unique to Lake Tahoe, but Tahoe is a natural point of convergence and, once again, a microcosm of environmental concerns elsewhere.  Boats from as far away as Idaho and Texas are regularly put into Tahoe.  The April 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine makes two references to California’s Sierra Nevada, one in this article on effects of invasive species and disease on amphibians.

Lake Tahoe boat launch information can be found at Tahoe Resource Conservation District.

New Construction. Carson City, Nevada.

In Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty, I’ve included Mark Twain’s account of his adventures at Lake Tahoe from his book Roughing It.  This offers a singular account of Lake Tahoe in the 1860’s, immediately on the heels of the California Gold Rush and soon after Tahoe began facing the stresses of settler, mining, and lumber interests.  When I first came across this tale, I could not help from laughing out loud.  With poignancy and  humor, Twain captures a mindset that persists to this day.  This time we are on the heels of the Internet and real estate bubbles – our modern-day gold rush.  Better informed, we understand our impacts and, hopefully, will be better stewards of Lake Tahoe and the land.

For more detail on Twain’s time in Tahoe I suggest David Antonucci’s research, Mark Twain’s Route to Lake Tahoe, published in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly.  Antonucci explores the routes and camp locales Twain would have considered on his journey from Carson City to Lake Tahoe.  Aside from this interesting background, we also glimpse the circumstances facing travelers to Lake Tahoe in those early days.

Twain’s unique and entertaining look at Tahoe and the landscape not long after settler contact, offers an insightful counterpoint to Dr. Goldman’s contemporary and studied examination as detailed in the introduction (see earlier post).  These two personal accounts offer notable bookends to our modern culture’s encounter with Lake Tahoe.

Silver Lake along the crest of the Sierra Nevada. California.

I feel fortunate that Dr. Charles Goldman of the Tahoe Research Group and the Tahoe Environmental Research Center agreed to write the introduction to Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty.  Dr. Goldman’s 50 years of study and advocacy on behalf of Tahoe has spawned a generation of scientists researching all aspects of the Lake Tahoe watershed.  His work has been instrumental in the founding of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a California-Nevada bi-state agency that oversees all development in the Tahoe Basin.  His team at UC Davis has laid the foundation for much of the public policy addressing Tahoe’s challenges and has been at the heart of a model for environmental stewardship emulated the world over.

As with other contributions to Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty, Dr. Goldman’s introduction is written in the first person and comes to the reader on a very personal level.  This element of individual contribution is how change is brought to our world.  If we wait for the group to act, the important work will not get done.  We all have a responsibility to pursue our passions and create the world we wish to see

Fifty years ago a man came west to study fresh water lakes and fell in love with Lake Tahoe.  Today,  agencies, universities, non-profits, and countless individuals have joined the effort to save Lake Tahoe.  The government has pledged $1 billion towards the cause.

Winter Dawn. Tahoe Keys. Lake Tahoe, California.

Every time I set up the camera, my goal is to create a photograph worthy of a patron’s wall.  To attract an audience the work must first be beautiful.  To persevere, it must be insightful and create awareness. Photographing in the large format tradition with normal perspective lenses subtly conveys the historical  perspective.  It was the view of many early 19th Century photographers that wide angle lenses distorted reality.  To paraphrase Michael Carey Lea in his Manual of Photography from 1871, gardens should not appear as parks.

Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty begins with the beautiful and often subdued images of land, light, and shape.  So much of our affection for Tahoe comes from a sense of awe and wonder upon seeing its shores.  Slowly the imagery shifts toward, what I term, the intersecting landscape.  To quote the Forward: “While Tahoe’s sublime vistas always capture me, it is upon closer contemplation that I inevitably find myself at those intersecting landscapes, those brought on by our industriousness, dreams, and ambitions.”

Parking Lot. Vikingsholm. Emerald Bay State Park. Lake Tahoe. Calif

It is a common fiction that the photograph is a neutral witness.  Yet, every author has a bias which will find its way into the work.  As such, my book of contemporary landscape photography, Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty, is my story.  Often discounted is the photographer’s palette, composed of such tools as lighting, camera position, camera format, lens selection, film type, and exposure, not to mention the many variables controlled after capture, during image processing and printing.  Less tangible is the photographer’s worldview, psychology, and culture.  More useful to the viewer than an explanation of how I take a photograph, may be a consideration of those artists to whom I have found inspiration.

In general, I find my work influenced by the historical and I see my photography as a small step in a larger continuum.  More specifically, Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty builds upon a number of artists.  Eugene Atget, an early French photographer, made “documents for artists,” or, rather, reference photographs primarily for painters.  His approach to photography was that of a utilitarian.  I find a fresh, unencumbered naiveté in his work, an artist practiced with a new technology.  Carleton Watkins is another historical photographer whose work I admire.  As part of the United States westward migration, his work has an element of reportage, where he describes the West to eastern audiences.  When I first picked up a camera, like many, I was inspired by Ansel Adams.  Adams’ approach was a conscious departure from those before.  Through his mastery of photographic technique, he was able to stretch the medium – manipulating film, exposure, and development to precisely achieve a desired result.  I also frequently find inspiration in artists outside of photography.  One such example is painter Mark Rothko, whose use of the color field draws my eye.  Richard Misrach’s open skies carry this style into photography.  Finally, I would like to acknowledge Larry Sultan, whom I consider a cultural anthropologist.  Sultan can take a widely familiar subject, such as that of parents, and through the images of his parents we come to better understand our own parents, families, and our aging culture.

Outwardly, I worked with a large-format camera and middle-distance lenses to approximate the historical perspective of Atget and Watkins.  On a subtle level this makes a visual connection between past and present.  Inwardly, I approach every subject as if it is posing for both a present and future audience.  What is the story behind this small slice of the landscape?  What am I choosing to include and what do I discard?  What is this present moment?  Can I be the unbiased, empty witness?

The challenge of the Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty photography book project, was to utilize the photographic vocabulary to capture not only Lake Tahoe’s breathtaking grandeur, but also the ecological issues facing the basin and the historical context from which they arise. We wanted a book that would build upon earlier works of photography on Tahoe and remain relevant for years to come.

Lake Tahoe is revealed through images of both the majestic landscape and our interactions with the natural world. With an introduction by preeminent Tahoe research scientist Dr. Charles Goldman, poetry by former US Poet Laureate and 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Hass, and historical content by literary icon Mark Twain and 19th Century photographer Carleton Watkins, this important work not only expresses the beauty of Lake Tahoe but examines it as a microcosm of the environmental challenges confronting our time. Supporters include the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, the Oakland Museum, the Phoebe Hearst Museum, Adobe, and Hasselblad.

Since publication, I have found that this multifaceted approach is bridging disparate audiences and broadening the conversation – in terms of both the environment and photography.

Thanks to Douglas Taylor of the Vista Gallery and Deborah Lane of the Bookshelf for hosting a wonderful gallery reception and book signing.  Making a surprise appearance were two college friends I haven’t seen in over 25 years!  Both the Vista Gallery and Bookshelf make important contributions to the Tahoe community. The Vista Gallery has the most comprehensive photography collection in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Bookshelf is Lake Tahoe’s most prominent bookseller with locations in Tahoe City and Truckee. I encourage everyone to drop by their wonderful establishments and keep abreast of their many interesting events.

If you were unable to attend, signed copies of Lake Tahoe: A Fragile Beauty are on hand at the below locations.

Vista Gallery
7081 North Lake Blvd. (hwy. 28)
Tahoe Vista, California  [map]
tl: (530) 546-7794

Bookshelf Bookstores
Tahoe City at the Boatworks [directions] and
Truckee at Hooligan Rocks [directions]
tl: (530) 581-1900