It is 125 degrees outside. I carry 45 pounds of camera equipment in a back pack. My assistant, Beth Mundell, myself and our guide have been driving for hours in harsh unforgiving conditions on a road that is no road to speak of.. more like following the last vehicle's tracks, when you can see them, and who knows when it came through, or even if it made it to its destination! Our destination is to find wildlife in the Maasai Mara or the Etosha Pan. Tribal peoples in the remote Kunene region of Namibia, or the Jade Sea. How about the Chalbi Desert in the isolated Northern Frontier District of Kenya to meet Gabra- just a hop skip and 20 hour jump from Nairobi, or rare desert elephants along the Aba-Huab river in Kaokoland. Why? I am a wildlife, wildlands, and wild people photographer. Beth and I travel to remote places that our western culture hasn't gobbled up and made its own to learn and photograph our Earth's diminishing wild places. The kind of wild places that can kill if you don't keep your stupidity factor in check.

I do this for love and for fun and to keep me sane in our changing world. I am saddened by what we sacrifice as a culture for our western practice. I fear what we are losing with our western culture exploiting and consuming all lands and peoples it encounters. I dread that other cultures forfeit their tradition and history for the wish to be like us. I am wary that in our search for equality we are losing the profound meaning of partnerships. I do this so that we may perceive a way of being and existing outside our western world's confined isolation and insulation from nature. I do this to remind us that there are more harmonious and less destructive ways to live on our Earth, to teach myself and others to learn and participate, to experience life and be more compassionate and conscious of our surroundings. I do this so we may be able to look inside our selves and understand the deeper spirituality that connects us all, and take responsibility for our lives and our Earth. I express that our varied Earth and myriad forms of life are worth celebrating and protecting so they may be here for generations to come. If WE don't care, who will?

Colorado Women Dedicated to
Wildlife and Habitat Conservation:
"If We Don't Care, Who Will?"

In 1993 I first went to Africa on a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) safari to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. When I stepped off the plane I found my soul, the something that was missing from my heart. From there I went to East Africa and I knew for sure that I wanted to help, to learn and to educate. I had found my life and needed to figure out how to go about living it. I took workshops in Kenya on the challenges of conservation efforts, and was asked to be a core committee member of WWF's Women and Conservation Leadership Initiative. I learned what conservation means and that understanding the roles of women in grassroots communities impacts all efforts to implement conservation endeavors.

I come from an art background of graphics, color and commercial design. I always enjoyed taking pictures but did not fully understand the mechanics of the camera. When I came back from Africa and saw my film, I realized where my eye wanted to go.....to wildlife! To get personal, to exemplify the spirit of wild lives, to expound on the harsh, beautiful, and eerie landscapes. I studied with renowned photographers, and was told 'the only dumb question is the one left unasked'. So I asked my dumb questions and I learned how to stop taking pictures and start making them. My life was coming together and now I wanted to combine my passions: Photography, environmental ethics and conservation. So I went back to Africa.

I met with several women in Kenya who were working towards micro-enterprise with Maasai women. I met further with other groups of Maasai and we discussed their needs. I agreed to sell their beadwork back in the States and return with beads and goods for them. I came home energized with a satchel full of film and a suitcase loaded with Maasai beadwork.Thus began my business, The Beaded Path. As it turned out, this was destined not to endure. I did not want to be an importer of African Art. I wanted to make pictures, magnificent pictures to tell the stories of the people I met. So, back to photography classes I went where I studied technique to bring light to my vision. I bought a computer and learned about a program called Adobe Photoshop. Delight! I discovered my niche! My art background and my photographic talent combined and now I could create the visual dreams spinning in my head.

By 1997 a lot was happening. I was invited to do a photo-documentary on cheetah rescue in Namibia in the next year, and I had exhibits of my wildlife photography in local galleries. WWF was launching the Women and Conservation Initiative in Aspen, and I was interviewed on our local radio to talk about it all. As I walked out the door of the station an anthropologist came in to talk to me, said she was looking for the right kind of photographer (who, me?) for her book on the Tuareg in Niger.Over the next several months she and I met and talked about creating a book project focusing on women in Africa and I knew my long-time best friend, Beth, had to be involved. Thus, after many months, and a three day retreat Women and Wildlands© was conceived. The plan was to go to several African countries to talk with tribal women seeking to understand their roles within their communities and how this related to their wildlands, wildlife and conservation. turn the page...