Our photographer’s climb was hard. What he discovered paid off.
It took a long hike to get to his fire tower shoot. But once there, the Monitor’s Alfredo Sosa met with a dedicated subject whose joy in her important work was worth sharing.
Under some circumstances, photojournalism can become an athletic event.
“It’s like a contact sport, almost,” says the Monitor’s Alfredo Sosa. “And the equipment is heavy. However, in terms of getting to [an] assignment, this has been the hardest.”
Alfredo is describing his recent shoot to capture the high-altitude work of Samsara Duffey, a veteran wildfire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness. Ms. Duffey’s increasingly critical job during a time of raging western wildfires is to survey the landscape to pinpoint smoke.
Besides the rigors brought by the climbing and the cold, Alfredo was faced with doing his intrusive shoot in the tight space of the tower. Yet the thing he was struck by the most was Ms. Duffey’s joy in doing the work she does. Not just in stewarding the land, but in taking care of the surrounding communities. And the views don’t hurt.
“Everything is new all the time,” he says. “And it’s hard to put a value on that. And I can see how that is what keeps her coming back.” He adds: “[I]t’s just you and nature. It makes you realize... It humbles you. It humbles you in a really nice way.”
To read about Ms. Duffey's work and to see Alfredo's photos, visit the story here.
Episode transcript
Samantha Laine Perfas: Welcome to Rethinking the News. I’m your host, Samantha Laine Perfas.
[Bird song and sound of walking.]
Alfredo Sosa: “We’re walking in this national forest. It’s beautiful, lonely.”
Laine Perfas: This is Alfredo Sosa, the Monitor’s director of photography. Here, he’s with our reporter Noah Davis. And they’re hiking up Patrol Mountain in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, to meet wildfire lookout Samsara (sum-SAR-ah) Duffey. For more than 25 years, she’s spent summers in a mountaintop cabin with 360 degree views. Alone on fire watch, she’s developed a complex view of environmental responsibility as the West continues to battle the effects of climate change. For Alfredo, it was an assignment unlike any other. Here, he talks about this experience, and his secrets to taking a great photo.
[SHORT PAUSE]
Laine Perfas: When you and the reporter arrived to start hiking up the mountain to go to her fire tower, what happened? I heard there were some emergencies that you guys had to navigate.
Alfredo Sosa: The night before, there was a big storm. We encountered a mudslide that completely blocked the road. So after a few seconds of panic, we both agreed that, you know, we had reached a point of no return and we have to keep going no matter what.
Sosa: We left the cars on the side of the road. We’re walking, hoping for the best.
Sosa: The problem is that we were still, I will guess, at least 10 to 15 miles from the trailhead. And luckily, we came across some people who were camping on the other side of the mudslide. They were kind enough to give us a ride. And then 20 minutes later, we were dropped off at the trailhead, ready to go.
Laine Perfas: I feel like this assignment specifically was very physically strenuous. Have you had to do that a lot throughout your photography career?
Sosa: Well, to be honest, photography is a very physical activity. We know how many things can go wrong or how difficult it is to get a good photo. So we shoot a lot more than the regular person, but also we move around. We’re like up, down, around the person, the subject, climbing things. It’s like a contact sport almost. And the equipment is heavy. However, in terms of getting to the assignment, this has been the hardest.
[Sound of a river.]
Sosa: So the time has come to cross this river. I’m just hoping that my equipment doesn’t get wet if I take a fall. We’ll see.
[Clip fades out. Short pause. Sound of footsteps, accompanied by heavy breathing, fades in.]
Sosa: I’m feeling the altitude I think. But…keep going.
Laine Perfas: So, being up in the mountains with Samsara, what was it like photographing her in this environment?
Sosa: Well, I was actually a little concerned, because I’m thinking: I’m going to go and meet a person who chooses willingly to spend weeks and weeks at a time every year by herself on top of a mountain. So I’m thinking, this person obviously doesn’t enjoy casual conversation with strangers – to put it mildly. Right? I’m thinking: OK, I’m going to show up there. I’m going to have a camera. Photography is very intrusive also. Like I said, we take a lot of photos. And the space where she is – I’m going to be generous and say 15 feet by 15 feet. And there’s stuff in there: a bed, a desk, a stove. So there’s zero room for moving around. This is a bad combination. So I was really worried. But to prove me wrong, we just arrived at the mountain top and she comes out, she has lemonade for us, and she’s already talking: Welcome.
Sosa: Hello!
Samsara Duffey: You finally made it!
Sosa: We made it.
[A dog barks.]
Sosa: She has a border collie that keeps her company.
Sosa: What’s her name?
Duffey: Mae.
Sosa: Hi Mae!
Sosa: So she herself broke the ice immediately, which was a great gift to me. Because normally as a photographer, I am the one who has to break the ice. I always tell people that the first photos that I take never work. And it’s when you create this connection to the person, and both of you – photographer and subject – implicitly agree to have this dance, that things work. With her, I was so surprised – she was just ready for it.
Laine Perfas: What do you mean? “It’s like a dance.”
Sosa: It’s like a dance with somebody who you never danced with before. You will step on each other’s toes at first, right? Until you learn. OK. This person likes to go this way. Or with photography the same way. I pulled out a camera. I put it in front of you. I’m walking around and it [isn’t] until that person understands the process and is willing to be comfortable, that then the real stuff happens. A photographer can control the lighting, composition, but really the connection with the subject – that has to be given to you.
Laine Perfas: What struck you most about her and her personality?
Sosa: She was very joyful.
Duffey: I love the flowers up here. I love listening to the weather change. The joy here is getting up every day and being able to look at this landscape, and learning how things change.
Sosa: I only spent one night, but I learned that, by being there, that she gets this amazing light show every night and every morning, something that I had never seen before. I mean, how the sun comes from behind the mountains, and it lights the mountains, and every 10 seconds it’s lighting the mountains in a different way or different mountains are being lit. It was impressive. It was a fleeting moment, and it was so amazing that I was outside running around the tower like a madman, taking photos. I’m not wearing anything warm. It is like, you know, 45 degrees at 8,000 feet. I was not willing to come inside and put a jacket on, out of fear that I was going to miss the two minutes where everything was happening. And she gets this every day.
Laine Perfas: Did experiencing that yourself give you insight into why she has continued to persevere in this job and do it for so long.
Sosa: For sure. The whole landscape. It’s very dramatic. Many times you are at the same height as the clouds. And the clouds change colors. So everything is new all the time. And it’s hard to put a value on that. And I can see how that is what keeps her coming back.
Laine Perfas: It seems like a huge responsibility to look after the land in the way that she does.
Sosa: It is. And she is not just looking for fires. The only electricity she has is she has two solar panels to power a radio. So she has no electric lights, nothing. But there is a radio that works. And Forest Service crews are always working in the area. All the crews check in with her in the morning.
[Radio noise.]
Duffey: I’m gonna get my first radio call of the day in a moment.
Sosa: And then in the evening she doesn’t sign off until every single crew has checked in. And they don’t all check in at the same time. Once everybody checks in, then she says, OK, I’m off the clock. And she relaxes. So she has responsibility towards the people also. Their safety.
Laine Perfas: Well, before we go, is there anything else about the trip that struck you that would be cool for people to hear?
Sosa: Living on the East Coast, you know, everything is close together, full of people, and the views are kind of limited by structures or trees. And when I was there. You could see as far as you could. It really makes you think about your position in the world as this little tiny individual. It’s an experience I would recommend to people. It was made stronger because I did not have my comfort things with me. So no running water, no electricity, nothing. So it’s just you and nature. It makes you realize... It humbles you. It humbles you in a really nice way.
[MUSIC]
Laine Perfas: Well, thank you so much, Alfredo. I’m glad it was such an amazing trip.
Sosa: I’m glad I could do it.
Laine Perfas: Thanks for listening. To find links to the story featuring Samsara Duffy and photos by Alfredo, visit csmonitor.com/rethinkingthenews. This story was hosted by me, Samantha Laine Perfas, and co-produced with Jingnan Peng. Edited by Clay Collins. Our sound engineers were Jeff Turton and Noel Flatt. Copyright by The Christian Science Monitor, 2022.
