Photography has been an interest and “hidden” passion with me since I was in about 4th grade. I grew up in the midwest and western U.S. and have lived in Idaho since 1994. But, I’ve been to nearly every state in the U.S. and I love to travel, also visiting Tanzania, Honduras, Uruguay, Australia, and New Zealand (one visit was to spend a year at University). I’m a self-taught photographer with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and work toward a M.S. in Raptor Biology. I’m a full-time freelance photographer and photography instructor.

What you see in my work is how I see the world around me, and my interaction with it. My photographic and artistic conversation with the environment is not specific. Like a good discussion with a friend, it takes turns and twists, explorations and revelations that are logical, illogical, thought-provoking, fun, controversial, argumentative, contemplative, and beautiful. I straddle the realms of pre-visualization and post-visualization, moving entirely in either or mixing them together. Art is free-flowing and shouldn’t be constrained unless created specifically to meet some arbitrary standard.

Describe a transformative process that has occurred in your own practice as an artist or in a past residency as a teaching artist
It’s difficult to single out a particular instance because I work with a broad group of students from children to adults, beginners to advanced.  Photography, as with other arts, is about exploration, discovery, and expression and every advance is transformative in some way, large or small, but equally important to the individual in their own way and for their own purposes. At the same time, every advance my students make – their transformation from unknowing to knowing – has an impact on me as well. So, the transformative process is a two-way street; I often learn from my students as they do from me.

When have you been able to recognize learning taking place?
When a student has been struggling with a concept then suddenly the “lightbulb” goes on in their eyes; through continued improvement of their work; participation in class, asking probing questions on topic; experimenting and exploring with technique; helping others.

What excites your imagination and in turn how does your work excite imagination for your audience?
I’m interested in a very broad range of things, so my imagination is excited by everything around me. I’ve been a park ranger, wildlife biologist, filing clerk, delivery driver, museum associate, data entry operator, “adventurer,” photographer, and other jobs that have increased my awareness of the opportunities and variety out in the world. We often get wrapped up in routine and expectation, actually limiting our capacity to become excited about the mundane things in our lives which, in themselves, can be quite inspiring. I challenge my students to break the barriers routine and expectation can place on us and to follow their own inspiration in their art and in their life because that is where real success is found.
What characteristics mark a successful collaboration for you?
Respect, communication, understanding, challenges met and/or overcome, flexibility, resourcefulness, a positive outcome, learning, mutually gained experience.

How do you foster creativity, both in your own work and as a teaching artist?
Creativity, inspiration, and personal experience are tightly linked. I’m observant, listen to a wide range of music, read books and watch movies from many genres, go to plays and watch street performers, look around me wherever I go, use all my senses, challenge myself, explore and experiment, take classes in other arts, participate in life. I encourage stepping out of the comfort zone – doing work that is challenging, unfamiliar, even disliked – and to learn something new every day, because the creative process and inspiration can arise from anywhere and anything at any time. A creative person must believe it will happen and be prepared for it whenever it does.

List three key understandings of your discipline:
1. The physical and behavioral properties of light and the control of those properties in photography
2. The context of photography in your life and the world
3. Concepts of visual perception and awareness

List three outcomes of the three key understandings:
1. Understand the physical and mechanical foundations of photography
2. Understand and apply the personal and cultural value of photography
3. Have an increased awareness and perception of your surroundings

List some subject areas outside of the fine arts that relate to your potential residency work:
math, science, history, social studies, ecology/biology, humanities

Example 1: Research and discuss how photography has been used to influence opinion and decision making.

Example 2: Analyze various photographs and their application or non-application of the principle of the Golden Mean, the relationship to the Fibonacci sequence and Rule of Thirds, and contrast their effectiveness.

Example 3: Use photography to document an historical building, neighborhood, site or event.

References

Meggan Laxalt Mackey
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office - External Affairs
1387 S. Vinnell Way, Room 368
Boise, Idaho 83709
(208) 378-5796
margaret_laxalt_mackey@fws.gov

Susan Kain
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge
13751 Upper Embankment Rd. Nampa, ID 83686
(208) 467-9278

Betty Rodgers
6227 N Stafford Dr
Boise ID 83713
(208) 938-3011