Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Rio Grande featured in photo exhibit

T.S. Last El Defensor Chieftain General Manager, tslast@dchieftain.com

Alexis Rykken is foremost an educator. She has a master's degree in education. She heads the Mapping the Rio Watershed Education Project for the Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and developed a curriculum that's been adopted in the schools.

But as part of her work she inevitably takes pictures, and many of those pictures — along with a few drawings by students and a mural created by third-grade students at San Antonio Elementary School — are currently on display at the Socorro County Chamber of Commerce Office during the month of June.

"When I first started, I didn't think of taking pictures or doing a DVD," said Rykken, who has developed a DVD that tells the story of her mapping project of the Rio Grande. "It all just evolved."

Rykken said she's always had a love for rivers. She grew up near the banks of the Red River in North Dakota, spent 20 years in Colorado before moving to New Mexico, six years ago, and settling in San Antonio.

"I fell in love with it over here," she said. "There's all this space and no traffic. It felt good to be in an environment with a lot more open land and the refuge is so beautiful."

Rykken acknowledged her expertise in photography is limited. But she couldn't help but capture the beauty that is found in nature along the river's route.

"Mine is more a passion of the river than being a photographer," she said. "It comes out of my love and passion for the river."

The exhibit includes dozens of color photos of the upper portion of the Rio Grande, starting at the headwaters near Stoney Pass, Colo., to Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge. As a work in progress, the photos stop there.

"I hope to go all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It's in my plans," she said.

Rykken said her students learn a lot from the series of photos.

"It's a great teaching tool," she said. "They can see how different the river looks in different spots along the river. They notice how it meanders.

They see that there's different vegetation and ecosystems."

The photos depict the great river near its origin as a crystal clear mountain stream. They show how it cut a deep gorge through the rock near Taos. It is seen as a broad, swollen river as it passes through Escondida.

Some of the photos show wildlife that is found along the river's route. The Sandhill Cranes that so famously make their winter home at Bosque Del Apache are seen amid snowy Colorado landscapes as they make their way north again. A deer pauses by rocky banks for a drink.

Rykken said the main purpose of the project is to increase awareness of the river and its part in our world.

"People don't think about the river. This helps to bring the river into their consciousness," she said. "The river is the catalyst for the whole study, but it brings in the environment. It's not about us. It's about going out and opening our minds to a larger world that supports us. We have to bring it into our consciousness that all life is interwoven."

Some of the photos have text taken from students' journals overlaid on the images. It's clear that the students are getting the message.

"I feel like I'm in a different place. I feel like I'm a different person. I feel like I'm part of the wildlife," wrote one student.

"Later on I realized what my message to the river was," wrote Matilde, a Cottonwood Valley Charter School student. "It was that we needed each other."

The photos and students' artwork can be viewed by the public at the Chamber of Commerce offices located on the east end of the Plaza in Socorro. Office hours are from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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