Glen Canyon documents re-emerge in film featuring Flagstaff photographer at Sedona International Film Festival.
The entombment came when the diversion tunnels of Glen Canyon Dam were screwed shut in 1963, causing the waters of the Colorado River to back up 186 miles to both flood the canyon and create Lake Powell.
One prominent storyteller stepping forward to tell this story is Dawn Kish of Flagstaff, a conservation photographer and filmmaker whose documentary, “Tad’s Emerging World – Glen Canyon Exposed,” has been featured at the 2024 Sedona International Film Festival.
Facilitating the telling of this story is the drastic drop in water levels in Lake Powell from September 2021 to April 2023, the lowest levels since 1963, reportedly caused by drought, climate change and increased human use.
Kish said she has been greatly inspired by the work of photographer Tad Nichols (1911-2000), who worked for the Sierra Club and the U.S Indian Services and first explored the Colorado River through Glen Canyon in 1950.
Nichols, working with a Crown Graphic 4×5 view camera, photographed the flowing streams, quiet amphitheaters, twisting slot canyons and naked red rocks for the next 13 years, before the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 halted his efforts by flooding the canyon.
His book, “Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World,” was published in 1999 just before his death and contains what have been called the best photographic images of the most beautiful canyon system in the Southwest.
“I’m a big fan of his work,” Kish noted. “Tad is like the Ansel Adams of Glen Canyon. I’m going back to create art and advocacy in a place I never thought I would see in my lifetime.”
Kish was able to borrow the actual 4×5 camera used by Nichols to create her own images of the emerging canyon.
“I can’t believe I was so lucky to go back to Glen Canyon with Tad’s camera, the same camera that documented Glen Canyon in the 1950s,” she said. “I really enjoy 4×5 and you really slow down when creating film images. I called the camera ‘Tad’ and would breathe slowly when releasing the shutter. Plus, I have been making films and usually I turn my photographic stories into films. It is still storytelling and creating.”
Kish obtained the Crown Graphic from Richard Jackson, a master photographic printer who lives in Flagstaff. Nichols left his view camera to Jackson, who was a friend, as well as his printer.
“Tad would come up from Tucson just to work with Richard in his darkroom,” she explained. “Also, Jackson was Bennett and Running’s printer too, and now mine. He is a big part of the story. He is in the film, too. Without him this never would have happened.”
As of now, because the water levels rose back up in the lake from a big snowpack in winter 2023, all the photos she has taken are under water again.
“Someone needs to document the story and show how humans really know how to mess up the natural world,” Kish said. “People don’t even know that there is this amazing canyon under the reservoir, Lake Powell. I tell people about Glen Canyon, and they have never heard of it. So, I’m going to expose Glen Canyon when it emerges out of its watery tomb every chance I get.”
Kish’s documentary had its world premiere at the 2022 Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2023 Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. The film has been in many other film festivals as well, before its acceptance into the Sedona festival.
In addition to the two screenings at the Sedona International Film Festival (Feb. 29 and March 2), the documentary and question and answer session with Kish is included as one of the elements in The Glen Canyon Rises Tour, which will have tour dates this month in Utah, Colorado and Flagstaff, 3p.m., March 16, at the Museum of Northern Arizona.
Kish, the daughter of Flagstaff artist Dee Brewer, was raised in Flagstaff and graduated from Coconino High School. She says she was fortunate to live in a city with several renowned photographers who took her under their wings.
“Sue Bennett and John Running were my mentors,” Kish said. “Sue gave me my first camera when I was 17 years old. I grew up in Flagstaff. I’m a Coconino Panther. I am a published photographer for over 30 years and filmmaker for about 10.”
Today, she travels all over the world on photo shoots.
Kish has also been a river runner for many years, which aided in her explorations for her Glen Canyon film.
“I have been rowing boats down Grand Canyon since 1998, and my first trip was in 1994 with Raechel and JP Running,” she said. “We are all still running the river. I didn’t really know Glen Canyon. It was a thorn in our side to go to Lake Powell because of the dam. But, now I am so glad I’m there to document this historic moment.”
During her efforts to explore the Glen Canyon story and its unveiling as waters receded, she did many journeys with a variety of boats and with new and old friends into the unknown of Lake Powell and to watch the canyon emerge.
Kish published a photographic portfolio of the project in Arizona Highways, The Advocate and Adventure Journal magazines. Her photographs were also exhibited at Northern Arizona University, Hidden Light and Coconino Center for the Arts.
“I did seven trips all together, for about three to four days at a time,” she said, “sometimes with my assistant, Cierra Murrietta, sometimes just me. She helped me capture the story, as much as she could, while working another job. Then we edited the film in my little casita in the back of my Flagstaff home.”
In addition, David Brower is part of the Glen Canyon history. He served as executive director for the Sierra Club from 1952 to 1969. During his term, he had successfully fought to prevent the building of a dam that would have flooded Dinosaur National Monument on the Upper Colorado River. However, he was also serving when a compromise was reached to build a dam and reservoir in the lesser known and recognized Glen Canyon.
“David Brower said it was his biggest mistake to let Glen Canyon go under,” Kish said. “Maybe we should make plans to let the river flow free now that Lake Powell has hit record lows. I think Mother Nature is telling us something and we should listen for once.”
Creating the documentary in an outdoor environment was challenging.
“When your studio is the outside world, there are always challenges with weather and ever-changing light,” she said. “I think when you live in the elements you learn to keep your equipment clean, but sometimes that sand storm comes and you are screwed. We had one storm that was so bad it broke my tent.”
What is the message that Kish would like to convey to viewers of her documentary?
“That we should never let this happen. We need to respect the land and the people that lived there. I didn’t know much about the canyon except what I saw in photos, songs and books. I didn’t think I would ever see Glen Canyon in my lifetime, but what I saw was incredibly beautiful. Breathtaking really! When the water levels dropped in the lake, the lowest in history since the Glen Canyon Dam stopped the Colorado River from flowing, I knew I had to explore and document this moment. I’m still going back. I’m not done. That canyon is massive. I need to expose Glen Canyon when I can.”
The Tad Project continues, she added.
“I have exhibited the photos, created TAD TALKS and tours, screened nationally and internationally and now I’m working on a coffee table book,” Kish said. “It’s all about the love for art and advocacy for Glen Canyon. If you like this project and would like to support it, please go to my gofundme: Tad’s Emerging World. Thank you.” QCBN
By Betsey Bruner, QCBN
Courtesy Photo: Photographer Dawn Kish used Tad Nichols’ original Crown Graphic 4×5 view camera to tell the story of Glen Canyon. He photographed the flowing streams, quiet amphitheaters, twisting slot canyons and naked red rocks before the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, which halted his efforts by flooding the canyon.
