Images of activism

Sonoma Creek

Photo by Scott Hess.

Interview by Paul Epstein — published January 27, 2012

Petaluma photographer Scott Hess was on the ground recently when protesters rallied against the planned construction of an asphalt plant across from Shollenberger Park.

For years, local nature lovers and developers have argued over the right to build factories across from the wetlands area.  The issue is complex and perennial, as the two sides struggle to frame the site either as a beautiful park or as a dismal slough, suitable only for dredge spoils. 

Hess has created beautiful images of this site, and many other environmentally criticasites in a life's work of activism-through-art.  His work spans the Bay Area and beyond, and includes not only nature photography, but rural and agrarian images, architectural and cultural motifs, and even modernistic abstract compositions.  Gentle and soft-spoken himself, his work is nonetheless vivid and bold.  Published in many magazines, and exhibited in diverse galleries and museums, his accomplishments run a broad gamut.  His work has also appeared in Bay Nature. 

I recently spoke with Hess on the telephone, to discuss his photography, his activism and his thoughts about the world. 

Q:  On Sunday, you took a group photograph of the participants at the Stand Up for Your Wetlands rally who had gathered to protest the planned Dutra Asphalt plant near Shollenberger Park.  How does this protest tie in with your work as a photographer and as an activist?

 HESS: Well, I have always used my photography for activism wherever I can.  We have political issues around here, on Sonoma Mountain and so on.  I've used it a lot, beginning with the Lafferty Ranch issue. I have tried to show what that looked like because people couldn't go up there. 

 It was back in the 90's, and the city owns this beautiful watershed property on Sonoma Mountain, the headwaters of Adobe Creek.  It's a very long, narrow property that has the creek running up the middle of it. It's a beautiful place. 

 There was a neighbor who wanted to buy it, a wealthy neighbor.  So we didn't want the city to sell it, we wanted to hold on to it so that possibly it could be opened some day.  That's where I really started with the activism.  I hiked up there, I guess, illicitly and photographed it a lot and showed people what it looked like and we used those images a lot to help publicize the issue. There was a very active group and I used my photography for that.

 It didn't get sold, but still the neighbor threatens to sue if the city lets anyone on there.

 Q:  I understand that you were a close friend of Petaluma Riverkeeper David

David Yearsley on his front porch in Petaluma March. Photo by Scott Hess. 

 HESS:  We were totally on the same page.  We had a great friendship.  We did very different things.  He was a real organizer.  We share the same values completely: to protect the watershed, to zero in on the actual natural beauty that is around us and keep speaking about it and keep amplifying it so that it's a value that's in the air all the time.  So we always shared when he wanted pictures.  I'd try to get them. 

 Q:  At one point you worked on a calendar, called the Ecobabes, as a fundraiser for the Sonoma County Climate Protection campaign. That organization defines its mission with three verbs: to inspire, align and mobilize.  If you had to condense your own mission into three verbs, which would you choose and why? 

 HESS:  Well, I'd always want to inspire.  I don't know about aligning.  I just go out and do what I love.  It would be nice if things aligned around it but that's not a conscious thing. On that project, [my mission was] especially to put some focus on these young women, who are pretty cool people.  We got a little bit of criticism for it but all-in-all, it was good because we wanted to put some focus on these young activist women. 

 Q: So your three words would be "inspire", "do" and "put a focus on”?

 HESS: Yes.

 Q:  How does your work as a photographer relate to your work as an activist, and visa versa?

 HESS: Many times you can use the photos for a cause.  It stems out of a common appreciation.  Any kind of activist appreciates something and stands up for it.  And the appreciation and response to beauty is what drives me, too.  I stand up for the beauty that I see, for the integral systems that I see around me that are often challenged by our industrial world. 

 Q: What are the challenges and obstacles that you face in your work, and how do you deal with them? 

Photo by Scott Hess.

 Q:  Are you doing exactly what you want to be doing right now?

 HESS: Yes, pretty much.  I've done that, even though it has cost me. It's a challenge sometimes to make a living. 

 Q:  So what do you do about that?

 HESS:  I live frugally.  And sometimes it works out and you get paid nicely.  And sometimes you don’t.  It's not predictable. 

 Q:  Are there other challenges and obstacles? 

 HESS:  Just having enough time, and time management. I always feel like I have awesome stack of images to edit, and you have to deploy them properly, and file them properly, and get them used properly.  It's time.  I have more enthusiasm than I do time. 

 Q: You photograph wilderness and rural landscapes.  You also photograph architecture, street culture and you even make modernistic abstract images.  How do you resolve the tension between wilderness and civilization in your own mind and in your own work? 

 HESS: It's a tension I live with.  We're all right in the center of that tension, all the time, actually.  So I don't resolve it.  I live with it.  It's kind of a mysterious thing we're involved with here.  I haven't figured it out.   I just go out there and respond to whatever I think is beautiful and significant and let the chips fall where they may.  I can't harmonize it all in my mind, actually. 

 Q:  You have photographed many leaders of the environmental movement through the Bioneers.  Their mission statement asserts, "the hour is dangerously late, yet there appears to be a worldwide awakening. The next ten years will be the make-it-or-break-it period…"  How pivotal is this moment in time?

 HESS:  It really is a pivotal time. I don't see how we're going to get out of it unless we have some kind of energy breakthrough. I really don't see how we're going to get out of our predicament.  I'm just hoping that by amplifying the best I can at every moment that we'll find a way. But it is a challenge. 

 Q:  Many of Bay Nature's readers are avid nature photographers themselves.  What thoughts do you have for emerging nature photographers? 

 HESS:  Go at it. Just do it.   Keep doing it.  And keep looking at your pictures.  If people want to have their photos be useful or be shared, just keep photographing a lot.  Look at them.  Edit them.  And think about them.  And file them properly. 

 Q:  Returning to where we began, if you could have the undivided attention of Bill Dutra, CEO of the Dutra Group, what would you say to him? 

 HESS: The Petaluma River, that spot that they want – it's not the right spot.  Find some other spot, but not that spot. 

 Q:  Is there anything else that you would like to share?

 HESS:  A lot of what I do is sort of mystical impulses.   I really don't have a rational explanation. I do have a mystical love for the landscape and the land; a real visceral, personal energetic connection with the landscape.  I just love it and I respond to it.  I guess most people do.  I guess most people want to belong to a landscape. 

 My current project is photographing all these batteries, the coastal defense system  around the Golden Gate.  They are very fascinating historically and they are incredible places visually and strategically.  I was drawn to that just by chance.  I've been working on that pretty seriously ever since.  I don't know why.  So it's just sort of a mystical connection.