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Kat Cannell Uses Photography as a Tool for Empowerment
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
 

BY KAREN BOSSICK

Photographer and horse rider Kat Cannell likes to say “With every image comes a story.”

And those stories include a 1,300-mile ride she took on horseback through Idaho to the Sierra mountains as her way of encouraging women to find strength from within. They also include  photographs she’s taken of a couple who married under a tipi of lodgepole pines amidst the lupine in the woods near Galena Lodge.

Cannell does most of her storytelling not through words but, rather, photographs which usually depict joie de vivre set against the canvas of Idaho’s spectacular mountain majesty.

Cannell is presenting her first solo exhibition, “A Walk through the Wilderness,” at Lipton Fine Arts Gallery in Ketchum through Dec. 1. And the gallery will throw an opening reception for her from 5:30 to 8 p.m. tonight—Thursday, Oct. 5—at the gallery.

Cannell will also be present for Gallery Walk on Friday, Nov. 24. That Gallery Walk has been dubbed a “Giving Walk” for the past couple years and a portion of the proceeds from sales that day will go towards Cannell’s Ride for the Redd.

Cannell undertook the ride to raise awareness for the difficulty salmon have navigating their traditional route from the Pacific Ocean to their Idaho spawning grounds.

“I use my photography as a tool for empowerment. There’s something empowering about taking photographs,” she said.

In fact, Cannell started taking photographs professionally in 2008 with the idea of becoming an art therapist, after having had had the opportunity to try out art therapy for herself. She received her BFA in Photography from Boise State University in 2014 and hopes soon to go back to school to get a Master degree in art therapy.

“It’s a dream. Photography has definitely given me a way to live life confidently,” she said. “It’s really a powerful tool in my life—my way of speaking strongly and clearly and spreading thoughts to the world and feeling heard.”

A native of Custer County and  resident of Ketchum, Cannell calls herself a “well-rooted drifter” for six months of the year as she helps her husband Willi Cannell with his Solitude River Trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

When she’s not running rivers and photographing weddings, she’s apt to be riding her horse through the wilderness.

Her horse trips are not for the faint of heart as she encounters signs that warn that she will be responsible for the cost of a Search and Rescue should she enter certain areas.

Cannell has blistered her hands using a packer’s saw to traverse 60 miles of downed trees on trails along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. And she’s captured it all with her Canon5d Mark III and GoPro.

She’s toned it down a notch to capture the more romantic things of life, such as a cowboy wedding featuring belt buckles and diamonds, a kiss on the dock of Redfish Lake, a wedding cake sporting horseshoes and cowboys sitting on a split rail fence.

Kat pursued her solo trip through Idaho into Nevada a couple years ago to show women that there’s nothing to be scared of in undertaking such an adventure.

“I drew all my courage from women doing awesome things. If I can return a little bit of that to someone else, I definitely feel fulfilled,” she said.

Cannell will fill two rooms of photography in a variety of sizes at Lipton Fine Arts Gallery, on 4th Street next to the Leadville Espresso House.

“The fact I can speak to my community and share with them these images is a really cool thing,” she said.

In addition, the artist will showcase a mixed media installation titled “Micro Trash,” which will be exhibited as curtains at the gallery entrance and elsewhere in the gallery. The work was prompted by her dismay that every single campsite she saw during a July pack trip through the Sawtooth Mountains sported trash. She hopes her installation will inspire others to pick up micro trash when they walk or ride trails.

“The Sawtooths are getting trashed and they’re too beautiful for this,” said Cannell. ”Every piece of trash that I have picked up in the Sawtooths I am confident that someone has seen and walked by. I carry a little plastic baggy and have it ready to put pieces of micro trash in. If two people a week took a plastic bag and picked up trash, it would make difference.”

Lipton Fine Arts is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and by appointment. For information, call Melissa Lipton at 248-514-5294.

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