VIL feb 09 GRID.indd - Tubac Villager

Top Left: A Queen butterfl y, a cottonwood leaf,
and an ear of a Santa Rita prickly pear cactus
can each deliver fi tting visual symbolism.
Bottom Left: Love in the desert, here in
Mexico, can occasionally be witnessed as literal.
Th e Borderlands Photographer
Love in the Desert
Text and Photos by Murray Bolesta
Valentine’s Day can inspire even the most grizzled
borderlands photographer to refl ect on the gentle topic
of love, becoming mawkish with sentimentality.
I won’t claim a romantic mastery of this topic, and there isn’t
exactly a shortage of discussion of love, even by photographers
who are customarily mute and surly. But we’re in the season, and
in the mood, so why not go for it.
Th e task of capturing love in the desert with a lens can take
the borderlands photographer into fanciful fl ights of lyrical
abstraction and visual symbolism.
Literally fi nding love, as in two potential soul-mates (both with
Nikons) stumbling across each other in some remote canyon, is
not necessarily what I mean in this article. (However, serendipity
of this sort is not outside the realm of possibility, so don’t give
up hope. My luck, though, would be to encounter a well-armed
border agent on patrol.)
Instead, the nature photographer’s task is to capture the pastoral
equivalent of an urban romance, to record a backcountry symbol
or token of the act or existence of love. Mother Nature gives us
so many examples.
It’s motherly love in the extreme.
Th e borderlands photographer’s Valentine mixture of outdoor
photos should include images reminiscent of love, tugging on the
heartstrings of the viewer and creating a vivid and compelling
picture.
Th ese include symbols reminiscent of a heart. Th ere are lots of
these to be found in nature, from cacti to leaves to shadows.
Symbolic also, are intertwined vines and closely-matched pairs
of just about anything.
For the photographer, pairs of critters are a bit fewer and
farther-between than a single one. A compelling photo of a
solo animal, whether a bird or a mammal, is often hard enough
to achieve. But from time to time a photographer will catch a
pair close enough together to suggest aff ection in their behavior.
Togetherness between any critters, displayed peacefully, is almost
always a Valentine winner in photography.
Th e true emotion of love between critters is a notion I’ll leave
to be pondered by others, but an instinctive appearance of such
behavior, or an imitation of love, especially in the wild, is a goal of
many nature photographers. Th e “aww” factor rises exponentially
for any wildlife photo depicting tenderness or intimacy.
Taking the study a bit further afi eld, and still in our glorious
borderlands outdoors, one can explore abstracted tangents of
love, such as the pastoral nurturing of the land by a gardener
tilling a row of heritage crops at Tumacácori Mission, or the
compassion symbolized by a barrel of water left in the Ironwood
Forest by humanitarians to aid desperate migrants.
Further, the painstaking stabilization of a crumbling adobe
structure is a depiction of love for our borderland cultural
heritage. Mother Nature’s monsoon rainfall to replenish a
parched desert landscape is also a powerful nurturing symbol.
For you, the lonely photographer wandering from mountain
to valley, discovering these actions and symbols and recording
them via the camera, can help replenish your own spirit and all
those who share your love of borderland imagery.
Murray Bolesta’s CactusHuggers Photography specializes in
borderland images and supports the preservation of southern Arizona’s
natural, rural, and cultural heritage. Murray’s home gallery in
Green Valley can be visited by appointment and he can be reached at
www.CactusHuggers.com.
Images
Top Right: With not too much imagination,
even the lowly pincushion cactus, in the correct
position, can suggest the charm of a motherchild
pairing.
Mid Right: My “Deer Crossing” photo from
Buenos Aires N.W.R. conveys impressions of
intertwined friendship.
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Lower Right: Th e male jackrabbit, like human
males, displays much silliness within the mating
ritual as a queenly female feigns disinterest.
Botom Right: A love bite implies aff ection