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| Jack Dykinga: From Pulitzer to Pop-Up |
| Gordon White | Tuesday, 19 May, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||
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Internationally celebrated landscape photographer Jack Dykinga and his eternal search for solitude, intimacy with nature, and Arizona’s desert light.  He’s won a Pulitzer, had his photographs published in National Geographic and Arizona Highways, and is internationally celebrated as a photojournalist and landscape photographer. Yet, in his own words, Jack Dykinga still hasn’t arrived. In this interview, we peel back the layers of Jack’s history until his landscape photography intersects with truck camping to take him deeper and closer with nature. Along the way, we discover the many facets of Jack Dykinga and learn why a truck camper is an essential tool for his work.
TCM: How did you first discover your passion for photography? Jack: When I was in high school, I managed to win the Look Magazine photography contest. We’re all predisposed to whatever gifts you’ve got genetically. I’ve always been left-handed and had a hard time reading in school, but visuals and spatial perception were always very easy for me. Winning the Look Magazine contest was validation and a push in that direction. TCM: Was winning the Look Magazine contest the moment when you realized that photography was going to be much more than a hobby? Jack: I suppose you could say that was a turning point, but it wasn’t quite that crystal clear. I was taking photos for my high school newspaper and one of those photographs won the contest. So that was the beginning. After high school, I worked at O’Hare Airport for a guy who photographed celebrities when they arrived. I was actually paid a salary doing that and got to meet a lot of people including Jimmy Durante and presidential candidates. There was always a tail fin of an airplane in the photographs so it was pretty commercial. As a kid just out of high school, it was very interesting. TCM: That does sound interesting. And that job led to bigger things? Jack: Yes. Because of that job, the Chicago dailies noticed my work, which was a big deal for a young kid. When I went to the Chicago Tribune and asked for a job in their darkroom, they thought I was good enough to be shooting for them and hired me as a photographer. TCM: That must have been heady. Jack: Well, I was pretty arrogant. I was more surprised more than anything. TCM: What did the Tribune have you shooting? Jack: I was photographing anything notable including astronauts and presidents. I also photographed civil rights marches and riots while becoming more educated by what I was doing. TCM: Educated? Jack: I became a lot more liberal. I came from a suburban Republican family. After I had been beaten up by police during civil rights marches, I got to see the other side of the world. Photography became really important. One of the things that happened was that I photographed a really down-trodden part of the city called Uptown with poor white people. The story ran and the city cleaned up the area. That’s when I realized the power of the press to use the language of visuals for change. TCM: It sounds like you and your work were changing too. Jack: Yes. I got a lot more sophisticated and started looking at the camera as a tool, not just a hobby. It became something to record history. That was pretty neat and it took me to a whole different level. I was winning awards as a local press photographer and then I got an assignment to photograph overcrowded conditions in state mental hospitals for the mentally retarded. That’s when I won a Pulitzer. TCM: Wow. Was that a really big deal? Jack: You would think so, but not really. It was 1971, and I suppose it was a big deal back then. It’s a great union card and it opens a lot of doors. TCM: What was it like to win a Pulitzer? Jack: The day I won I was arrogant and thinking I was going to win. Then someone told me that I hadn’t won and was going around kicking rocks. Later I was in the back processing film and someone in the newsroom asked me to come out. The whole newsroom stood up and applauded. I was choked up knowing I had won. I worked very young and aggressive newspaper and they were used to winning lots of awards. One of my friends had won the year before. There was an esprit d’core. It was very gratifying to see my colleagues stand up and applaud, especially when I respected them as much as I did. TCM: When did you become interested in nature and landscape photography? Jack: While I was still in Chicago, I read about a photographer out West named Philip Hyde. He was a student of Ansel Adams and he was using his talent to preserve wilderness areas and preserve land. I knew I wanted to do something bigger than myself and that was the germ. Then I left the Sun Times where I was working and went back to the Tribune as a photo editor. I was management. TCM: Management? You put down your camera? Jack: Not entirely. I was still doing special assignments. I did a piece with a guy who was climbing Mount Rainier. I made it, but he didn’t. That was a big taste of the outside world. That experience and reading about Phil Hyde put me in the thick of things. It was pretty hard to back to Chicago after that. I had the bug. TCM: What year was that? Jack: That was 1974. I took a leave of absence from the paper and my wife and I, with two kids in tow, took off and moved to Tucson, Arizona. That was only a leave of absence, so we moved back to Chicago. We returned to Tucson in earnest in 1976. TCM: Did you eventually meet Phillip Hyde? Jack: I did, and we become friends and traveled together in Baja. He was a master at packing a pickup truck and his wife was fantastic at creating meals in a tin can. Becoming friends with Phil was a dream. By this time, 1981, I had left the newspaper business and become a wilderness guide. I had climbed a few mountains by that time. I was teaching photography and taking people on trips. After a couple years, I pitched my idea of a story on my business to a new fledgling magazine, Arizona Highways. They said they’d rather have a story illustrated with my photography. I was working with Charles Bowden, who has since become famous and remains a good friend. We ended up collaborating on five books together. TCM: How did you eventually cross your landscape photography with truck camping? Jack: I ran into other photographers on the road who were using truck campers. There I was cooking on my tailgate and they were in their campers. I needed a way to get out of dodge and get down the road reliably and with a fast set up. Obviously a pop-top camper can go anywhere. TCM: What was your first truck camper? Jack: My first camper was a Skamper that I found as a demo at a good price. It proved to be a really important piece of equipment. The best photography is often taken in worst weather. To be able to drive through a storm and then immediately go photograph is a huge asset. It allows me to stay out longer and work smarter. To a lot of people, photography is a hobby. For me it’s a business and I need to justify every expenditure. So if a piece of equipment isn’t getting used, I get rid of it. The camper was a keeper. TCM: What happened to the Skamper? Jack: Let’s just say it got loose from all my abuse. Then I discovered Four Wheel Campers through another photographer friend. He told me that a Four Wheel is made for the kind of abuse I would subject it to. I got my first Four Wheel Camper in the early 1990’s. That was before Tom Hanagan owned the company. It was a good camper and they were interested in having photographers use them. Now I think I sell more Four Wheel Campers than anybody. Every time I go to a gas station someone asks me about the camper. Tom has also accepted my input on modifications, many of which he’s followed up on. TCM: You talk about your camper as a tool. Is it really just a tool, or do you enjoy your truck camper beyond that description? Jack: I definitely enjoy my camper. If I go stay with friends, it befuddles them when I stay in the camper rather than in their house. I’m more comfortable in my camper. Sometimes they have a hard time understanding that. I know where the coffee is and everything is in the right place. I’m used to it. TCM: For me, the camper quickly becomes home. Jack: Yeah, home. But essentially, the camper is a tool. It gets me off the beaten path so I can work solitary. My wife will go with me to Baja but, most of the time, it’s solitary work. So you really need something that will bring you back home. I also want something with a certain amount of comfort. I used to think it was macho to live without comfort and brag how bad the trip was. That’s okay if you’re camping, but when you’re working, it’s not a good thing. If you’re uncomfortable, your productivity goes down dramatically. I’ve come to realize that it’s not a bad thing to open up the door in the morning with a cup of coffee and go to work. One of the things I like most about my truck camper is that I’ve got everything there; two camera sets, two light meters, everything. I also have fan belts, tools, a good repair kit, and stuff like that. I have anything I need to get out of things including an air compressor, towline, and jumper cables. When you need these things, you really need them. Having a repository of all this stuff is so valuable. It’s a library of everything I need. When I go to Africa with a rolling tent, I invariably forget something because it’s in the truck camper. I don’t think about it anymore. I have to remind myself to not be so complacent. TCM: Have you ever been really stuck out in the wilderness? Jack: I’ve been stuck in volcanic ash and had some really funny experiences too. Once I was hitting the wrong button in my truck thinking I switching to four-wheel drive, only I was actually turning on the air conditioning. That happened in front on some surfers down in Baja. Over the years I’ve become pretty adept at getting myself unstuck. The best way is to not get stuck in the first place. TCM: Where have you been with your camper? Jack: I’ve been all over Mexico and the United States. I’ve been thinking about a camper trip to Chilie. I have friends down there. TCM: Tell us about a typical day when you’re out by yourself in your camper taking photographs. What’s it like to be out there alone? Jack: The creative juices flow when I’m out by myself. Traveling alone is an integral part of what I do. I’ve learned to embrace it. If I have to go photograph a place with people, it’s a chore. Being out in a truck camper allows me to become intimate with my subject. You have to live there. You can’t do it vicariously and expect to be successful. You need to experience the moods of the place, and the weather. That’s it. Press photographers say F11, and be there. For nature photographers it’s F64, and live there. I recently did a project on a border wall with Mexico showing how it adversely affects wildlife going back and forth. My truck camper became a mobile office with solar power and a place to work on the laptops. The work was exhibited in the Rayburn Office Building last week in Washington DC. TCM: Landscape photography back to photojournalism. It sounds like a full circle. Jack: I never left the circle. I’m just now shooting large format landscapes to communicate. TCM: You’re well known for your passion for Arizona. Do you have some favorite places in Arizona that you like to go truck camping and photographing? Jack: Anywhere around the Grand Canyon in the BLM lands and the National Forests is pretty special. I have a book called, “Images: Jack Dykinga’s Grand Canyon”. I drove all around the Grand Canyon with my truck camper for that book. Everyone knows the National Park, but they often don’t know the National Forest, BLM land, and Indian reservation access. Many roads are four-wheel drive and others are severely four-wheel drive. I once knocked part of my awning going through some trees in that area. TCM: What keeps you going out and talking photographs? Jack: I think it’s issues. It’s a Catch-22 being a wilderness advocate photographer. I photograph a place showing people where to go while trying hard to maintain it. It’s a delicate dance that you have to do. You want to advocate places that could be trashed, but you don’t want to be the trasher. That’s a very present issue for me now. TCM: Tell us about your truck and camper. Jack: My truck is a 2004 Toyota Tundra. I’ve had three Four Wheel Campers. My camper now is a Hawk model. I’m waiting for the three-litre turbo diesel Toyotas to come to the United States. We had them in Chilie and they’re great. Toyota had the perfect truck with the previous generation Tundra and then they made it a big thing. They blew it. The small 4.7 litre V8 was a great engine. It’s the best they’ve ever had. It would outlast a Cummins Dodge, and it’s gasoline. TCM: If the magazines went out of business, the book publishers stopped calling, and the print sales dried up, would you still go out, camera in hand, to capture the desert light? Jack: It’s funny you ask that. I’ve actually been going in that direction. I used to go out and every time I took a photo I was assured a sale. Now photography is ubiquitous and cheap and it’s no longer the case. I seriously would make about $300 for every photo I took as recently as four to five years ago. I used to drive around and take speculative photos. Now I don’t leave the house if someone isn’t paying the expenses. I’ve become more cautious. TCM: What happened? Jack: As digital photography and digital clip art kicked in, the old stock photography business model didn’t make it. It’s really tough for young photographers. Lucky for me, I’m also teaching workshops. Most of the work I’ve done has been for business with a capital B. Now I work for me and it’s art. My work is changing. My photography always did have a certain look and aesthetic and I’m pushing that totally. I’m doing more gallery shows. Art is the part that feeds my soul. So that’s becoming much bigger and more important to me. There’s been a priority shift. TCM: Speaking of young people, what do you tell a young person who wants to follow in your footsteps? Jack: The first thing I tell them is to get a real job. If they keep coming back and prove their mettle, then I will help them. I work with the International League of Conservation Photographers. Part of that group are young photographers whom we jokingly call, "junior leaguers". It’s a way for the geezers and the younger photographers to train each other. I learn digital from them and they learn philosophical bits of wisdom from us. Photography workshops put money in the bank, but often the attendees are wealthy people and they don’t have the same passion for the environment young people do. They just want to bag a great photograph. That’s why I devote some of the time to help the young and passionate photographers. TCM: Are there any moments that you captured on film that you would like to relive, perhaps this time without the pressure to capture the moment, without the camera? Jack: Actually, quite the opposite. I’ve been to many places when I wished I had a camera, or used my camera better. I’ll tell you a story. I was teaching a workshop with some of the best talents in the country in terms of contemporary photography including national magazine photo editors and other top photography brass. During the workshop, a bright-eyed young student asked how it felt to have arrived. We all looked at him in disbelief. If you felt you had arrived, you wouldn’t have been at the workshop. I think you need to feel that you could have always done better. If you feel you’ve arrived, then you become complacent. There’s been a couple of shots in my career that I hit out of the park, but basically I can always go back and see that I could have done this or that. I always have the hunger to improve my craft. TCM: What’s next for Jack Dykinga? Where do you go from here after all of your accomplishments? Jack: Well, I’m starting a workshop school right here in Tucson to teach creativity, which leads me to a book I’m writing to go with it. I’m also working on limited edition prints for art galleries. They’re really taking off, especially since I’m getting old (laughs). I’m going to judge a BBC photography contest in London next month, a world wildlife contest. I also teach photography workshops for the Royal Photography Society in Scotland and England. Then I come home to do more dishes. You can’t take yourself too seriously. TCM: Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you would like to add to your interview? Jack: Getting back to my original story, the very first leave of absence we were in a VW bus, an old Westfalia that would always break down 125 miles from everything. That was long before you could FedEx parts. A couple of times I remember being fed up with my job, packing up the Westfalia or a Land Cruiser and driving around to find a new place. That got me out there to Tucson. Tucson was the place we liked the most. And that was it. TCM: Thank you Jack. I really appreciate the time. Jack: You’re welcome.
For more information about the truck camper manufacturers and gear companies, please visit our Buyers Guide. For more information about Jack Dykinga, his photography, photography workshops, and landscape photography books, visit his website at www.dykinga.com. |
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