Interview with Gary McGuffin

Self-taught photographer Gary McGuffin and his wife Joanie have been working as an adventurer photographer team for more than 25 years. Winning the 1996 Great Lakes Book Award, for Superior: Journeys On An Inland Sea, ignited attention to their advocacy of Lake Superior conservation.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Gary McGuffin Based in the Algoma Highlands, Gary and his wife Joanie have published seven books, documenting their adventures along some of Canada's most interesting waterways. Read more about their hand in creating the Lake Superior Northern Marine Conservation Area in the June 2008 Canadian Geographic issue. Visit the McGuffin's website for more.
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Q It's clear from the books you've published and your promotion of the new National Marine Conservation Area that you're passionate about Lake Superior. How do you capture images that translate that passion through your photography?

A Having explored the area for so long, it's getting to those specific spots that really speak to our art, what our emotional package is and how we see Superior. We get to places that not many people ever see or can envision because they've never been there themselves. We not only get there and record that scene, but also be there in the type of extreme weather that really evokes the power and the whole spiritual aspect of the lake.

Q You've been travelling these waters for more than 25 years; are you always exploring new locations or do you find yourself revisiting specific areas where you know you'll get a great shot?

A The priority is going to new places. This winter we spent 10 days on St. Ignace Island. It was 30 to 35 below. We were out there for two weeks snowshoeing, pulling toboggans across Nipigon Bay, which was frozen. It was a long effort to explore the routes. We couldn't get to those particular places as easily in the summer as we could in the winter. The whole land becomes one medium of travel. You can explore so much by snowshoe. You're not restricted to the waterways and short portages. You can cross lakes, rivers and get into other watersheds.

Q Do the majority of places you photograph come from exploration, or do you plot destinations?

A We like to plan three weeks to a month of travel, as opposed to showing up at a destination for a couple days. It's really difficult to get to particular spots. We like to ease into a journey and let everything settle away from the travel. It's the acclimatization of getting back into the natural world. We like to give ourselves some time to get absorbed into that natural realm. It's like sloughing off everything else that it took to get there. Now that you're in the canoe, your balance comes back. You have to get that balance back for your creativity to flourish.

Q When you're paddling or walking the shoreline, what catches your eye and inspires you?

A The idea is to look at the unusual and then blend that unusualness into people's perception of what Superior is, as the largest freshwater lake in the world. That could be something as small as a fragile, arctic plant and showing it in perspective of a big headland of rock. Where most people would see this big headland of rock, they would probably pass by the tiny flower which is the size of a pencil eraser. I try to notice that it's there and spending some time showing its relationship with the huge world in which it exists even though it's such a tiny plant.

Q So people can view your work and allow your experience to help them translate their own perspective of what Superior should be?

A I think that's what art is about, offering new perspectives. In Superior Journeys On An Inland Sea, we showed an inland sea that is usually perceived as a place of sunken ships, as a place where there are placid days, beautiful sunsets, interaction with wildlife and travel in all forms of weather and seasonal conditions. Instead of this dreaded inland sea that sunk ships, pictures of people experiencing those conditions and being happy brought a whole new persona to Superior. I think that was a big influence on people who picked the book up they had no idea that Superior could be this inviting.

QTravelling this same stretch of water, how do you avoid repetition?

A I don't, it's just the weather that does it. You can never go by the same place twice and see it in exactly the same light, the same weather. There's a place on Superior where we've gone by in summer and seen rock paintings. We thought it would be nice to come back in winter, where we can actually snowshoe or ski to them and not bob around in big swells trying photograph them. We go there in winter and because of the wave action, there's a foot of ice against these rock paintings. We'll have to wait a couple of months for the ice to melt and by that time we won't be able to get out there by snowshoe or ski. But then we turn around from where those pictographs were and we see huge ice falls that we never would've imagined would be there in the summertime. Nature just reveals itself in very powerful ways.

Q Your landscape photos sometimes include people or bright kayaks and tents. Is this a technique to add more colour? Scale? Bring further life into the scene?

A Yes, that's another one of our signature handles. With the Superior book, that really broke a lot of nature and wildlife photography rules, because we started putting people in the wilderness. In our theory, why eliminate people from the wilderness when they've always been there they're part of it. And in terms of encouraging people to go to these regions, that's why we think of shooting this through the people experiencing this landscape. I try to put people there you are in the scene experiencing this and I think that's what gives it that emotional edge, putting the viewer in the scene itself. People say: "I can do that, I can get there or I'll do whatever it takes to get there."

We really try to put people at ease, seeing people enjoying themselves in the wilderness is such a huge part of getting people to experience it. Once you get people to experience it, and they understand it, they love it. And when they see there could be a threat to taking something that they love away, that's when they'll step up and help defend it.

Q Not only do you capture action shots of fellow canoers and kayakers, you also capture the same action shots with you and your family. How do you set up these shots with a tripod, a remote, a timer?

A To make that work you really have to envision the perspective. We go into a little nook, a rock outcropping. If I can get out safely, I take the tripod, set the infrared remote on the camera and then try to figure out the markers that are in the scene, so when I get back down there I can line the canoe or the kayak up. I set it all up, run back down and we get into position. We can either be looking up at the camera or looking away just like a raven's perspective of being up there on the edge of that crevice looking at the canoe going by. We may go back around and paddle into it so you can see the wake of the canoe. Because it is digital I can run back up again and see if that worked or not. If it didn't, it may just be the angle that the canoe or the kayak came into the picture.

Q It sounds like the key is a lot of trial-and-error and patience to set everything up and keep going back and forth to get that perfect shot.

A Yes, and if you have the time, then use it. You have to judge how much time you think it's going to take to get that image. Surviving so many wilderness adventures is based on your judgment and sense of timing. That's the challenge of adventure photography working with all the other elements happening around you and still having time to record your experience.

Q That's something you've learned to do through your experience on the water?

A Oh yes, and I think that's what adventure photography is all about you can accomplish the expedition and come back with some evocative images. As a good adventure photographer you have to be the most experienced person on the expedition as well as being an accomplished photographer. You have to exceed expectations of the actual journey and get yourself into those spots where you are capable of recording the adventure as it happens. Not only the physical adventure but you're showing the human experience and the other subtleties of nature that aren't so much based on the sometimes grueling physical effort of getting through that expedition.

Q Do you have an example of when you were tossed into an unpredictable situation and how you were able to handle the elements while simultaneously taking great photos?

A It happens all the time. This winter we skied across the breadth of Nipigon Bay. The sun is getting into that right position, but you still have to cut half a cord of wood, get the tent up, get the stove going. Your feet are numb, your toes are numb, your fingers are going numb, you're wet; the temperature is going to drop another 15 degrees. Winter really tests your mettle, because it's so extreme. The idea is while you're doing all these other things, also get your camera ready, set the tripod up, pick the right location, and quickly scamper away for a split-second without anyone knowing you've left your camp set-up chores at 40 below. Then you actually manage to get that image of the camp setup with the glowing light and the sunset in the background.

Interview by Sheri Gagnon.