Archival Magic | Landscapes
"I felt a moment of despair until I looked out my window," said Rue Mapp as she led into a comment that has remained tacked on the walls in the rooms of my mind since I watched her virtual conversation earlier this year. "Nature never closes."
She's correct in a philosophical sense. Wise, even. Yet as Americans continue to seek nature during the pandemic, national park rangers grasp for sensible policies to handle overcrowding, from Acadia to Zion.
I looked through the National Park Service statistics to calculate any potential pattern. For four years ending with 2015, NPS sites recorded an average of 289 million annual recreational visits. During the next four years, through 2019, that average increased to 327 million.
So the pandemic did not cause the crowds. This is an enduring trend – quite positive in some aspects! Everyone should feel empowered and encouraged to connect with nature, and national parks represent amazing spaces for those activities. The puzzle: how do we balance access and sustainable use?
Like any complex problem, the solutions will be a set, not a singular. One way to help relieve the crush on national parks is to plan a visit to other gems.
Bob Wick just concluded a career of more than 33 years at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, one of four federal agencies that cares for the quilt of land parcels with protected statuses. Wick's photographs share the kinds of stunning, awe-inspiring landscapes people aspire to experience. But none contain "national park" in their names.
Unlike most photographers, we have access to Wick's archive because he made many images in his service as an employee of the federal government. We have public lands in the public domain, free to use in creative projects.**
Desert slot canyons. Route 66. Cyclists at sunset.
Archives are always relevant, and they can also be contemporary. As I've written before: "Consider revising your definitions. An archive is not a historical group of materials; rather, an archive is a repository of interesting opportunities."
To which I'd add a poem about reconsidering the ways we see the world.
** Some require attribution, like the lead photo for this post. Reminder: always check image rights.