Down at the river working on a (semi) new project. Hopeful it'll be seen (prominently!) sometime after the New Year. Will let you know.
Welcome to the new IMPACT online exhibition, a project exploring the internet as a venue for insightful photographic work. In an effort to remind viewers of the important role photographers play around the world, we invited an array of imagemakers to share galleries on their blogs (like this one) that comprise 12 images representing an experience when they had an impact on or were impacted. By clicking on the links below the IMPACT logo, you can move through the exhibition, viewing other galleries by different photographers. You can also click the IMPACT logo to be taken to a post on the liveBooks RESOLVE Blog where you can see an index of all participating photographers. We hope that by linking different photographic visions of our first topic, "Outside Looking In," we can provide a multifaceted view of the topic as well as the IMPACT individuals can have on the world around us.
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“I had been doing nothing but sitting around watching too much TV. Wasting away,” a soldier once told me. “And one day I saw this guy walking down the hall with a kayak over his shoulder. And he calls out, ‘Hey, whattaya you doing? Want to learn how to kayak?’ This got me off the couch. Gave me something to look forward to.”
It starts in the pool. Getting in the kayak and finding your balance. Learning proper paddle technique, getting used to how it feels to be upside down in the water and learning to roll (which is a way of righting yourself after being upended by using your torso and paddle).
Joe Mornini was the guy with the kayak. A high school teacher and an avid, experienced kayaker, he created Team River Runner to help veterans at Walter Reed Military Hospital rehabilitate. Six years later the mostly volunteer organization continues to give veterans an opportunity to learn new skills and experience new adventures along the road to recovery.
Everybody is meeting in the parking area across from Old Anglers Inn in Potomac, MD. A van filled with boats and equipment is quickly swarmed by volunteers and veterans. Someone is passing out helmets, PFDs (personal flotation devices), paddles, and kayaks of various sizes and shapes. There is much joking and laughter, lots of hugs. It seems everyone is assisting everyone in the preparation to paddle. Angler’s put-in is where the weeks of training in Walter Reed’s indoor pool pay off.
Among those ready to hit the water are a Vietnam vet who lost both legs to a landmine—he has a kayak specially fitted with two leg “sockets”; an Iraq War vet who spent a week in a coma after an IED explosion, and another who lost the use of his right lower leg after being shot with an AK47 – his leg was later amputated below the knee; and several PTSD patients on their first river outing.
The newer kayakers will practice paddling and rolling techniques in the calm waters of the C & O Canal. The more experienced group ventures down to the Potomac River for a little playboating at Maryland Chute or Offutt Island. Their rolling techniques are quickly put to real-world test as they try to surf the waves or “holes.” One wrong move and the kayak flips and is spit down river. One must either right oneself… or swim. You then paddle back into position and get back at it.
Recovery is slow and arduous. But the commitment, tenacity, perseverance, and attention to detail that was required in the military clearly serves them well here. From hospital bed to pool to canal to whitewater, these vets, these Wounded Warriors, exemplify that extraordinary human capacity to overcome.
Meantime... a heron.
Hope all of you are having a wonderful summer! Cheers.
Sell the house, buy a camper, travel the country... then settle in a new place. Sounds great!
No, no, no. I'm not going anywhere! But when my friend Amy Marquis and her husband Tom take off later this year I'll be going along... via the web.
If you happen to run into her in Colorado or California or Washington or Wyoming... say hello for me. Oh! and tell her I said she'd buy you a beer! (heh-heh.)
We lucky few who get some 7 or 8 decades on this fine planet should always take care to spend them well. Take chances, live fully.
Hope it all comes together, Amy.
Cheers.
It was an amazing experience. Very much looking forward to working with them again.
Photo by Rachel Klein-Kircher
Happy New Year, everyone!
Rob was wounded in Iraq. For months he wore a brace on the lower part of his right leg, utilizing a cane as well. The doctors were hoping that in time the nerve endings would regenerate in his leg and the feeling would come back. If not, they'd have to amputate.
Rob has been training long and hard to become a serious paddler. Totally driven man. He had an email signature that once read, "Soon to be world class athlete." He eventually changed it to, "Soon to be one-legged world class athlete." This October he became just that. Below the knee amputation. And despite a few setbacks (a recent fall broke his good ankle and one of his wrists!) he is indeed a world class athlete.
This is a shot from an outing in May of this year. He's surfing at Rocky Island waves on the Potomac. I noticed the Heron on the rocks across the way and scrambled to get in position to include it with whichever kayaker I could get. (there were several out there that day.) Turns out Rob got the best spot with the sun and the bird and the wave all coming together perfectly. He held this position for several seconds before getting tossed out! For a variety of reasons it's one of my most favorite shots ever.
The last time this occurred it took two years to refurbish the path and canal. That's a painful prospect for the many hikers, bikers and the fishermen and women who regularly visit. Let's hope for a speedier reconstruction this time around.
A couple days after the storms I made my way down a steep embankment opposite the path and made a few images. Using Photoshop (poorly!) I stitched together several of these shots to make a sort of panoramic rendering. In the middle of the photo you can see the tops of the trees that were once above the towpath. They are now settled in the sinkhole that drained all the water from the canal and sent it back to the river.
As I was loading up the boat, preparing to shove off, one of the guys told me it'd be better if I removed my shoes. Wading into the river even a little ways usually sinks your feet several inches into the muck. Water shoes or sandals like Tevas will fare just fine, but normal hiking boots really absorb the mud and accompanying smell! Not easily cleaned. I took his advice and left my shoes and sock there on the river bank.
We paddled up river and headed for their play-boating spot of choice. I took it slow, taking advantage of the boat, shooting much along the way. A small, rocky island sits here in the middle of the river. From up there I thought there'd be choice images. I paddled to other side of it and got out. Oh yeah... shoes! River bank. Ugh. Well, not going back. So with at least thirty extra pounds of camera equipment on my back I barefooted it over the pebbles, rocks and sharp edged boulders (and not a few prickly plants!) to attain my new vantage points. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!
Thankfully, there were plenty of photo ops along the way. I am submitting many for the article I've been working on for National Parks magazine (Winter issue.), so I must refrain from posting them. But this one I shot for myself. Unique in its perspective, it gives the sense of real wildness. A lone kayaker in the middle of nowhere... yet, in actuality, just outside of a major American city.
Love this place!
By the way, it looks as if the Wounded Warriors story will be in the Winter issue of National Parks magazine, not Fall as I originally thought. OK then... peace, til next time.
