VIEWFINDER

Twist of Fate Turns Photographer in New Direction

FATE HAS A way of dropping us off at life's crossroads without a map. The path we choose has profound consequences for the journey ahead. For photographer Kate Thompson, a tragic loss opened a door in her life and sent her down a new career path. Turns out it's the path she was meant to be on all along.

Thompson thrives on outdoor adventure, so she's the photographer I called on to shoot our story on rafting the Salt River in this issue, "Looking For Love Level," beginning on page 32. Anyone who's rafted the Salt knows the thrills and perils of navigating its frenetic current during the fast-water flows of spring runoff. A perfect fit for Thompson's skill and experience.

"I spend a lot of time on the water photographing whitewater boating and sea kayaking," she says. "Particularly, I love how light dances on water and how the human figure interacts with that quality. "This story was so much fun to shoot because of the people on the trip and my comfort level with this environment."

Thompson's love of the outdoors springs from experiences in her youth. She grew up on a horse farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and she explored routes through the estuary of Chesapeake Bay by sailboat and canoe at an early age. But even then, she longed for the American West. As a kid, she collected pictures of Western landscapes and pasted them into her journal.

"My parents figured I would not stick around the farm, and allowed me to go West when I turned 18," Thompson recalls. She moved to the opposite coast to attend college in Eugene, Oregon, and immediately found a job as a whitewater river guide.

Although her interest in photography began in high school, Thompson was never serious about it until she met Flagstaff photographer Dugald Bremner when she was in her mid-30s. By then she was already immersed in a career in soil and water conservation, working four years for the U.S. Geological Survey before starting her own business as an ecological consultant.

"Dugald was always encouraging me to take pictures in the field, since most of my projects involved working around archaeological sites and rivers," Thompson says. Soon her relationship with Bremner grew into more than a budding romance.

That's when tragedy struck.

"Just as we were making plans to get married, a twist of fate was tossed at me in June 1997," she says. "Dugald died suddenly in a kayak accident in the High Sierras while on a photo assignment."

Time stood still, her future abruptly and cruelly altered. The weight of the fatal news was crushing for all of us who knew Dugald Bremner. I met him in 1986 when his work first appeared in Arizona Highways. Bremner's action-packed images have always instilled readers with a sense of being along for the ride on his living-on-the-edge adventures. But knowing his love of the outdoors, he'd have been out there exploring new territory and living life to the fullest even if he wasn't working on a photo assignment.

"I decided to continue his photo business, wishing to honor his legacy and allow his work to have a natural lifespan," Thompson says. "During this time, I immersed myself in the world of photography and discovered a powerful creative process within me."

She studied thousands of Bremner's images as she familiarized herself with his photography files, and she read every photography book and magazine that she could get her hands on. Gradually, interest in her science career faded as she found strong support from the tight-knit Flagstaff photo community to carry on Bremner's work. "When I was kicking off my photography career, David Edwards, Sue Bennett and John Running encouraged me to stick with adventure photography, but to trust my own style," Thompson explains. "My style shows a softer edge of adventure and is reverent of nature. I like to bring out the feminine qualities of nature. I constantly experiment with slow shutter. Blurry photos make hard edges fall away and allow the abstractions of nature and motion to come through."

Photography intertwines with adventure and gets her out where she can push the bounds of her physical and creative abilities. She's found her rightful niche in photography, doing what she was born to do.

Summarizing her transformation, she says, "My path of editorial photography symbolizes my path of savoring life intensely, while meeting the many challenges that arise."

A path well chosen for the journey ahead.