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Spotlight on Sustainability: Shannon Switzer

Master of Environmental Management student and conservation photographer

Shannon Switzer
Shannon Switzer is a first year Master of Environmental Management student at the Nicholas School of the Environment and a conservation photographer."I got started with conservation photography when I met this girl who was a surfer sponsored by Patagonia, Dakine, and some other surf companies. She was going to sail around the world it worked out for me to hop on a boat with her and photograph. I had started a portfolio when I was studying abroad in Australia, and I had recently gotten into photography, so somehow I convinced her that I would be a good photographer. I went on the boat with her and I got some photos published in the National Geographic Adventure magazine, which unfortunately isn't around anymore, and it was my first experience getting published in outdoor magazines. Afterwards, I waitressed for quite a while and saved money to study as a researcher in Uganda, studying chimpanzees, and in the Seychelles Islands studying whale sharks. I was doing research, but my focus was to photograph and to tell conservation stories and so I continued working on my photography. I showed my portfolio from those trips to the International League of Conservation Photographers and got into the Emerging League, and from that I met a lot of other emerging photographers who had done the Young Explorer grant program through National Geographic, which I then applied for. I decided to focus more at home; it's a small grant so I just decided to stick around in my own backyard after having traveled a lot, and really understand how the health of the watershed in San Diego impacted the health of the coastline, and then people who are close to the ocean. The problem with San Diego is that it almost never rains, so all of this stuff, from dog waste to car residues, builds up on paved surfaces and all runs off into the ocean at the same time during storms. I have a lot a surfer friends, I love surfing, and two of my friends almost died from bacterial infections that they got while surfing, which served as the impetus for the project.There was a component of exploration to it - I trekked from start to finish on one of the rivers, which was about 100 miles without trails, and did some hiking around a lot of the other watersheds as well.  The story ended up being a journey starting in the headwaters of the river down to the mouth.  I also incorporated images that I'd taken from other parts of the watershed, not just that one river, but that was the main story line.Shannon Switzer is a first year Master of Environmental Management student at the Nicholas School of the Environment and a conservation photographer."I got started with conservation photography when I met this girl who was a surfer sponsored by Patagonia, Dakine, and some other surf companies. She was going to sail around the world it worked out for me to hop on a boat with her and photograph. I had started a portfolio when I was studying abroad in Australia, and I had recently gotten into photography, so somehow I convinced her that I would be a good photographer. I went on the boat with her and I got some photos published in the National Geographic Adventure magazine, which unfortunately isn't around anymore, and it was my first experience getting published in outdoor magazines. Afterwards, I waitressed for quite a while and saved money to study as a researcher in Uganda, studying chimpanzees, and in the Seychelles Islands studying whale sharks. I was doing research, but my focus was to photograph and to tell conservation stories and so I continued working on my photography.
(c) Shannon Switzer
Shannon SwitzerI showed my portfolio from those trips to the International League of Conservation Photographers and got into the Emerging League, and from that I met a lot of other emerging photographers who had done the Young Explorer grant program through National Geographic, which I then applied for. I decided to focus more at home; it's a small grant so I just decided to stick around in my own backyard after having traveled a lot, and really understand how the health of the watershed in San Diego impacted the health of the coastline, and then people who are close to the ocean. The problem with San Diego is that it almost never rains, so all of this stuff, from dog waste to car residues, builds up on paved surfaces and all runs off into the ocean at the same time during storms. I have a lot a surfer friends, I love surfing, and two of my friends almost died from bacterial infections that they got while surfing, which served as the impetus for the project.There was a component of exploration to it - I trekked from start to finish on one of the rivers, which was about 100 miles without trails, and did some hiking around a lot of the other watersheds as well.  The story ended up being a journey starting in the headwaters of the river down to the mouth.  I also incorporated images that I'd taken from other parts of the watershed, not just that one river, but that was the main story line.For a long time after undergrad I thought there wasn't anything out there that would combine my interests, but I love the Duke environmental management program. I think the project with National Geographic taught me a lot of things that led me here. While doing some film interviews with different organizations that were working to protect the San Diego watershed area, I realized that there's such a disconnect between all the different organizations. There's so much overlap, but they weren't harnessing that overlap to actually push forward where there were gaps. I think that's really true of a lot of conservation and sustainability situations, and I really like that idea of being the connector between all the different organizations.  I'm really interested in multi-scalar governments - how the community level intersects with the national and international levels, the gaps are between those, and where they can better support each other. More specifically, I'm interested in climate adaptation in developing coastal regions, which will incorporate my love of travel with my concentration in coastal environmental management."This interview is part of the Spotlight on Sustainability series put on by Students for Sustainable Living. For more information about sustainability at Duke, please visit www.sustainability.duke.edu.