The Last Coho
A new exhibition at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation suggests it’s up to us to save the salmon
On Friday, May 17, a group of locals gathered at Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation to learn more about the state of wild salmon in Sonoma County and the efforts being implemented to foment their return. About 40 people showed up for the event.
Photographer Kaare (pronounced “Kori”) Iverson and biologist Jacob Katz spoke, presented slides and cultivated conversation among the event attendees for an hour and a half, to promote awareness about the fate of California’s wild salmon and to launch Iverson’s “The Last Coho” photography exhibit in Laguna’s Heron Hall Art Gallery.
Maggie Hart, the outreach manager at the Laguna Foundation, began with an explanation of what the Laguna is and its relevance to both salmon and humans.
The Laguna is a 22-mile-wide wetland that starts in Cotati, she said, adding: “In Rohnert Park it goes under the 101, through Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Forestville. It becomes the largest tributary to the Russian River.” In effect, it’s a watershed—a bathtub into which the area creeks drain.
Home to salmon for millennia, “the watershed is where most of Sonoma County’s residents live, work and play,” and therein lies the rub.
“It’s an expansive freshwater wetland complex that hosts a rich diversity of plants and wildlife, many of them endangered or threatened,” Hart said. “Over the last 200 years, because of development, agricultural runoff, pollution just in general, the water quality has gone way down, and that is why the Laguna Foundation formed in 1989, to conserve and restore the Laguna and to bring appreciation for this wetland of international importance.”
In a word, the number of coho salmon in local rivers has diminished exponentially since modernity “muddied their waters.”
Katz, director of CalTrout’s Central California region, “focuses on redesigning California’s antiquated water infrastructure,” but perhaps more importantly, holds a lifelong passion for both fish and the water they inhabit. He believes art and science complement each other in informing the public about the natural world.
“When we start to see that our roads and our dams and our levees interrupt the natural processes that create and sustain the very patterns that these fish [salmon] recognize,” he said, “then we start to see that we have the opportunity not to just drain a farm field in the middle of the Sacramento Valley and grow food for people in summer, but in winter, to flood it.”
“We can say, ‘Oh, that same piece of ground can be managed in such a way that you’re creating a wetland-like habitat that those fish recognize, the food that they need to move forward to sustain, to grow,” Katz added.
Iverson’s connection to local salmon and the Laguna stems from his interest in the human connection to nature and our ability and attempts to revitalize it. “The Last Coho” exhibit combines his photography with select information to illustrate the local efforts being made to reinvigorate the Laguna’s salmon population.
Iverson’s work has seen publication by Adidas, Osprey Packs, Marmot, Lagunitas and Klean Kanteen. “The Last Coho” proved to be a uniquely artistic journey for him.
“I’m not a photojournalist by trade; I’m a commercial photographer,” he told the gathering. “I wanted to use the liberty in art to … anthropomorphize the health of this animal. Because as a scientist, you can’t really do that so much, but as an artist, you have all sorts of liberties with this.”
“And I think that to have a connection with something you have to feel an emotional reaction to it…an emotional connection to that individual thing,” he continued. “And so I came up with this idea of how I might get an aquarium, a battery-powered light, and get a salmon out of the water in California into this aquarium and photograph it.”
For the endeavor, Iverson forsook his usual digital 35 mm camera for a unique replacement: An antique camera once owned and used by none other than Ansel Adams—which was gifted to him by a relative.
The process of taking the photos required innovation. Because the antique camera uses old-fashioned plates instead of film, it requires total darkness in order to take photos. In order to accomplish this, Iverson placed the camera inside a closed box against the side of a small aquarium with a salmon in it, inserting his hands into the box to work the shutter.
Unable to see exactly when a salmon was in front of the camera lens, he guessed each time he took an exposure. The number of exposures he took was determined by his pocketbook.
“I don’t shoot in this format normally as a photographer,” Iverson said. “This is very novel for me.”
However difficult, the end result is astonishing: The large 4-inch-by-5-inch photographic plates allowed for large-scale prints with stunning detail. The photographic prints lining the walls of Heron Hall Art Gallery are by turns colorful, beautiful, dark, eerie, calming and compelling.
It is important to note that the exhibit is available by appointment only, Monday through Friday, or during special events. (Per the Laguna website, contact Maggie Hart to make an appointment.)
In spite of this limitation, the exhibit is worth the visit. The importance of our local wetlands in the natural ecosystem cannot be overstated—for salmon and all other life.
As Iverson said, “So all of us depend on the Laguna … [and all] of the wildlife depends on the Laguna.”
‘The Last Coho,’ photography by Kaare Iverson, is on display through Aug. 30 at Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa. Arrange for an appointment by contacting Maggie Hart at maggiehart@lagunafoundation.org or (707) 527-9277. www.lagunafoundation.org.
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