By Guest Blogger Lindsey Allison Ganahl, partner photographer and friend of the Fund
Selfie. It was the word of the year in 2013. At the time, I was a Content Manager for an international outdoor apparel retailer, working to establish the company’s presence on Instagram as the network surged to 150 million members. I remember the excitement in sensing that Instagram photography was going to change everything. As a kid who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, nothing felt more authentically “me” than inspiring more people to get outside and appreciate nature’s beautiful playground. Working in the outdoor industry full time taught me the value of living a life designed around outdoor adventure. It also opened my eyes to the possibilities that arise when there is perfect synergy and alignment between work and play. Outdoor adventure was my teacher and I wanted everyone to experience this feeling of wholeness and inner congruence reflected through the fullest expression of purpose and aliveness.
On the surface, I was driving demand for outdoor recreation under the guise of selling technical apparel and gear, but deeper down I was on a much bigger mission. I wanted to inspire more people to get outside and appreciate the natural world. One of my most favorite quotes is “You cannot teach people to save the wilderness until you teach them to love it.” I remember sitting in my office, creating social media posts, providing creative direction to photographers and feeling chills down my spine as I realized the power of social platforms in transforming the human relationship with the natural world. Photographs shared via Instagram felt like a beacon of hope for humanity. The word “selfie” took on a new connotation, as it felt like evolution in how people see themselves in connection to nature.
Within a year, this work would take me to Oslo, Norway where I was hired as a Content Marketing Manager for another international outdoor retailer. In 2015, our company became the number one fastest-growing brand across the Facebook platform (which includes Instagram). My work in growing our social media channels was featured by Facebook as a customer success story. A year later, in 2016, I completed my work in Norway and returned home to resume life among the snowcapped volcanos of the Pacific Northwest. To celebrate my return home and success in Norway, I registered for a charity ascent of 14,441 foot Mount Rainier. I wanted this climb to deepen my commitment to giving back through outdoor recreation, so I fundraised and trained to benefit the nonprofit, SheJumps, an organization dedicated to empowering women and girls in outdoor recreation. After months of training, I made my summit attempt in July of 2016. What was to be a celebratory milestone turned out to be the opposite. I wasn’t able to summit that day, and what I experienced on the way down turned out to be a pivotal moment in my career.
The high mountain above Camp Muir, at 10,000 feet, feels like hallowed ground. It is hard to describe the feeling of walking at the same altitude where airplanes fly. Mountaineering is considered the “art of suffering.” The suffering is mandatory, but it becomes something bigger when a climber is able to push through the pain and tap into a transcendental experience. It becomes a moment where the sensation of freedom, unity and expansiveness transform the pain into enormous bliss. The beauty that surrounds you from every direction commands an outpouring of love and appreciation for all of life. For me, the high mountain is a temple for that feeling of deep physical aliveness. I was fortunate to have tasted this before turning around at 13,000 feet, just above the Disappointment Cleaver on the DC route. Despite my failed summit attempt, I carried with me that feeling of vitality as I descended toward the alpine meadows above the Paradise trailhead. John Muir describes them as, “the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings.” I could not wait to capture this garden, in full bloom, resplendent with a rainbow of wildflowers. I had my camera ready.
When I finally dropped below the snow line, my heart sank. I walked through the meadows in horror as I witnessed hundreds of people swarming the area, scampering off-trail, picking flowers by the armful and destroying the ecosystem in a way I had never before witnessed. Where had all these people come from? I’d climbed and hiked in this area many times before and had never witnessed so many people treading carelessly across the landscape. Deep down I knew where they had come from. They came seeking the beauty they saw on social media. I knew at that moment my work in promoting the outdoors, like my summit attempt, was incomplete. At that moment I realized my work needed to change. I awakened to the idea that I didn’t want to mass market the outdoors anymore; I wanted to save it.
Following my experience in Mount Rainier National Park, I took a break from the two things that had defined my outdoor experience until that point: marketing and climbing. My body and my spirit were tired. My previous path no longer worked for me and with my camera in hand and friends by my side I set out on a new quest: I sought to find a novel way of transforming the human relationship with the natural world. I took one final marketing position with the Pilchuck Glass School, a nonprofit arts institution founded by Dale Chihuly. The vision for Pilchuck is to immerse glass artists in the natural elements. There, artists are surrounded with a rugged, natural landscape away from industrial society to create with light through glass. Like the artists, my work also allowed me to disconnect from the digital world and see what nature wanted me to create with light and glass through my lens. During that time, I won an Instagram contest and received an extended weekend adventure photography workshop in Olympic National Park. Hidden away in the coastal forest with other photographers, including fellow Washington National Park Fund photography partner, Scott Kranz, I began to change from a marketer into a photographic artist. I began photographing the National Parks around the state, working my way toward my current occupation as a freelance professional adventure photographer.
When I was invited to return to Mount Rainier National Park in 2019, it was not to climb, but to capture volunteers for Washington’s National Park Fund Women’s Only Weekend. Driving through the park gates, I felt like I had come full circle. I was returning to the park that inspired my new path in nonprofit work as an artist. Now, instead of climbing a mountain, I was using my craft to support a group of women working to preserve and protect the very same meadows that catalyzed my personal shift in 2016. It was clear that a new era of stewardship had begun in my life and that it was time to work toward healing the damage done by social media in the outdoors.
Meeting the women volunteers was moving. Incorporating stewardship, education and advocacy had never felt more important. It inspired me to join WNPF as a photography partner. It was my moment of deep exhale as I connected even more deeply with purpose. I wanted to do even more and I began to pivot the entire focus of my business to emphasize outdoor ethics and stewardship.
Since the advent of nature photography, the medium has served as both an art form and a critical channel for conservation. Traditionally, nature photography has functioned as a vehicle to transform individuals into advocates, giving rise to the creation of stewardship movements. However, in recent years smartphones have made photography more accessible and driven the rise of influencer culture. Community sourced images from social networks, otherwise known as user-generated content is a new way for brands and organizations to source commercial photos. No longer is commercial photography restricted to professionals. As a result, wild places have been under increased stress from high volumes of new content creators. In my Leave No Trace Trainer course, we calculated public land usage and determined that the cumulative impact of outdoor recreation results in 1.75 billion visits to US public lands annually. Many of those visits are motivated by inspired social media users, tipping the scales and shifting photography’s role as a catalyst for conservation to a threat facing wild places.
While the rise of Instagram represented a major evolution in helping people get out and appreciate nature’s beauty, unfortunately outdoor recreation went viral before many understood the gravity of their impact. Many newer outdoor photographers have taken to the wild with good intention, but without mentorship and knowledge of how to avoid damaging the ecosystems they seek to cherish through their art.
On Earth Day of 2019 The Nature First Photography Alliance was founded in response to this rapid paradigm shift. Nature First, a Leave No Trace partner organization, is an alliance of photographers dedicated to preserving highly photographed wild places through wise use, education, outreach, community and research. While the Leave No Trace principles seek to minimize human impact for everyone who recreates outside, the Nature First principles address specific threats posed by professionals as well as smartphone photography culture as a whole.
Because of my personal involvement in the evolution of modern photography culture, outdoor ethics has become the primary motivating force behind the work I do today. After joining Washington’s National Park Fund as a partner, I continue to dedicate myself to stewardship and do as a Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics Trainer, and through my role as Partnership Director with the Nature First Photography Alliance Executive Leadership team.
The goal of the Nature First alliance is to create a new standard for responsible outdoor photography and content creation. We seek to get every photographer, influencer and brand committed to putting Nature First by signing on to the alliance. The movement is a commitment to seven core principles. These principles create a standard that prioritizes the welfare of nature’s ecosystems ahead of photography objectives and are designed to reduce the harmful impact of photography on wild places. If we want to preserve and protect the fragile, delicate beauty of the natural world we have to change how we use photography to inspire appreciation of the earth.
The Nature First principles are:
Through organizational partnerships we seek to raise the bar of accountability for photographers. By motivating them to take the pledge from the top down, we empower brands and organizations to hire photographers who have formally committed to the alliance. Our partners send a powerful message to content creators and the industry that outdoor ethics are of the highest importance. Partnership affiliation also communicates that living an outdoor ethic elevates visibility and credibility in the community. Adoption of Nature First principles, whether through membership or partnership, helps both content creators and their affiliates to become protectors, advocates and safe keepers of the natural environment, ensuring long term availability and access to our world’s most beautiful photo worthy locations.
Here’s how you can help!
In the wake of the COVID19, trail use around the country is up as much as 400% in some areas. More people than ever are choosing to recreate outdoors. This is an unprecedented increase. If there was ever a time to prioritize the earth through photography, now is the time to take action. Together we can realize a vision where all of us “Take only pictures, leave only footprints.”
*All photos courtesy of Lindsey Allison Ganahl
Lindsey Ganahl is an adventure photographer who specializes in outdoor events, lifestyle, and adventure elopements. She is a proud Pacific Northwest native and grew up hiking, camping, and backpacking in Washington’s national parks. A pioneer member of the “Nature First” photography alliance, Lindsey is committed to minimizing the impact of photography on public lands. When she’s not shooting for her many corporate and personal clients, Lindsey can be found sailing, skiing, rock climbing, or attempting “Turns All Year” in a tutu on Washington’s volcanoes.
You can see more of Lindsey’s work on her websites www.LindseyAllison.com and www.GirlintheWild.com or on Instagram @LindseyAllisonPhoto and @GirlintheWildPhoto