Artist spotlight: Photographer Vern Northrup exhibit at the Knot through December

Fond du Lac Band member Vern Northrup began photographing during his work as a Bureau of Indian Affairs wildland fire operations specialist working on Native lands across the U.S.

“When I was a firefighter,” he reflected during a conversation with me last week, “we carried everything on our backs. Real cameras were heavy, so we would buy disposable cameras to document our work and its challenges. I fought fire for 26-27 years. I managed fires, managed aircraft, engines and crews, including training. It beat you up so much, not just physically but mentally. A lot of us contracted a form of PTSD.”

After fighting fires for 26 years, Northrup retired early, ill with Lyme’s disease. He returned to Fond du Lac, where medication helped him overcome the disease. He began riding his bicycle all over the place, taking photos and posting them on Facebook. He began to study and learn how his Anishanaabe people took care of themselves from the earth and are not that separate from it.

“We are just part of the circle,” he said. “Everything out there has its own spirit, even the earth. The earth was our pharmacy, our grocery store.”

Northrup’s photographs feature forest fires, lakes, flowers, plants, and interactions with and materials from nature: wild ricing, maple sugar-making, collecting birch bark.

“The creator gave me the eye. I’ve come to appreciate what he has given me: what’s out there, the beauty, and what it means to me,” Northrup said. “My grandfather wrote books in the ‘30s. He meant them to be read and shared. I want this for my photography — to share this beauty. I want to leave something for my grandchildren.”

Northrup shoots his photos with a cell phone.

“I like it because it’s smaller and more portable, and you can drop it in the water,” he said. He enjoys playing around with photos after they’re shot — like slicing up a photo into tiles and rearranging them. He’s curious, too, about film, and dreams of creating one around the stories of his grandfather. In Ojibwe with English subtitles.

In 2015, Michelle LeBeau invited Northrup to exhibit his work at the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) galleries in Duluth. He learned to process his prints on foam through First Photo in Duluth. His current Pine Knot exhibit is his 12th, including a solo show at the Duluth Art Institute (DAI) and a current one at the State Capital in Saint Paul. The DAI published his first photo book, “Akinomaage: Teaching from the Earth,” in August of this year. My favorite photos in this collection are entitled “Awanibiisaa, Fog with Accompanying Rain.” These include several stunning photos of droplets of water on tamarack needles, with this subtext: “The droplets on the needles of this tamarack remind us that water is everywhere, not just in lakes. We are water.”

Find Northrup’s photos on display at the Pine Knot News office at 122 Avenue C from now through December, along with copies of his book. “The Knot” gallery is open to the public any time the office is open.