12 Months of planning / 30 miles walked / 4 Days along the Salmon River. It all started with a crazy question. Could I find the headwaters of the river I’ve lived next to for six years and walk from there to the sea?
Southbound out of The Dalles, Highway 197 turns up from the Columbia River, curving through the gently rolling terrain of the upper Columbia Gorge. Leaving the National Scenic Area at about milepost 3, you’ll see the landscape evolve from manicured fruit orchards to hardscrabble wheat farms. Mt. Hood rises to the west.
I jumped at the offer when 1859 asked me if I was interested in shooting behind the scenes at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Few photographers get the opportunity to go behind the scenes at OSF. I was elated, yet felt the weight of responsibility from such a rare invitation. I also recognized that I was walking into an intimate lair, with dimensions I could hardly guess. The experience far exceeded my expectations as a photographer. There were large contraptions, small sewing machines, a woman creating a miniature head, welders and people covered in paint. This is a world where the future and the past come together in a visceral present. And I was fortunate enough to capture it all. Enjoy.
Contributing photographer Amanda Conde and 1859’s design team, Aimee Jameson and Guy Olson, took to the backroads of Central Oregon to photograph Homegrown Chef Carrie Cook Minns for the July/August cover. Hilarity ensued.
In August of 1859 the mountain that Native Americans knew as Wy’East gently cleared its throat, spitting smoke minutely and spilling lava ungenerously down the southern flank of the Cascade peak we now call Mt. Hood. Ensuing decades proved that Mt. Hood could wake with the tap of climbing pitons, give with the carve of a ski edge, sleep with the shush of its rivers and provide a hospitable canopy for generations of outdoor pursuits. Oregon’s tallest peak became its center point. Its stature among Mt. Hood’s denizens and visitors has endured.
Long before they came back in smaller craft, the Spanish, the English and the French hoisted sails in the names of their crowns and pulled up the windy Columbia Gorge. Explorers first, they admired the sheer basalt cliffs, the towering pines and the plunging falls along her banks. As sailors, though, they took note of the strong wind in the Gorge.
Rodeo clowns are actors performing dangerous improvisational theater before live audiences. Wearing multicolored masks layered in gaudy grease paint, they symbolize ancient Greek muses. Protecting and liberating the rider from calamity is the job of Melpomene, the scowling face of Tragedy. Meanwhile Thalia, the smiley face of Comedy, is busy court-jesting and regaling children with tomfoolery. How well the theatrical performance is received depends, in large part, on the chemistry between these two opposing forces—Tragedy and Comedy.
Every road to Canby is a pleasant one, especially for connoisseurs of fresh, locally grown produce.
1859 Food Cartographer Brynn Opsahl ate at Fried Egg I’m in Love on SE Hawthorne in Portland and the fare lived up to the hype – Brynn is in love.
