Conversation with Cary Groner
Photographer/writer talks about his
craft, the media, nuclear war, and more
by Lucia McKelvey
What started to be a routine inter
view with a Eugene photographer
quickly turned into something more in
teresting, and we've decided to run it
alL
Cary Groner, we discovered, is jar
more than a local boy with his finger
on the shutter. A recent arrival who
actually lives in Cottage Grove,
Groner is also a writer whose work
has won awards and appeared in a
variety of regional and national pub
lications. He has written plays,
screenplays, and fiction. He attended
the drama conservatory at Car
negie-Mellon University as a direct
ing student, and completed the four
year program, recognized as one of
the most rigorous in the nation, in
three years. Widely read, he has
something to say about nearly
everything.
We began the interview discussing
his most recent coup, a second-place
award in an international photo
graphic competition sponsored by the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
in Pittsburgh.
What’s Happening: What’s the com
petition about?
Groner: It’s for nature photography,
essentially, which is one of the things
I do. The picture they liked is of some
really nice-looking fog coming
through the old-growth forest over by
Short Sands, on the coast.
WH: You sound a little unconvinced.
CG: Well, I must say that the first
thing that came into my head when
they called me was, “Gawd, they
couldn’t have gotten very good stuff!”
I mean, it’s an okay picture, but out
of 500 some-odd entries? Come on...
WH: Modesty? "
CG: Reality,
complaining.
Not that I’m
WH: You have something of a repu
tation of being an enfant terrible. Is
there such a position as Eugene’s
foremost nature photographer?
CG: If there is, I doubt I’m it! It must
be clear that Brian Lanker is Eugene’s
foremost everything photographer,
and anyone who believes otherwise is
either an unrecognized genius of
extraordinary magnitude or sadly de
luded. I don’t know about this repu
tation you mention; I assume you’ve
been talking to one of my editors.
Anyway, to be an enfant terrible I
think you still need to be an enfant,
which I’m not. Although as anyone
who reads Newsweek knows, the title
does confer a certain je ne sais quois,
which in art circles these days is ab
solutely de rigeur. Really. Par ex
cellence. Au jus. If people like us can’t
pepper our dialogue with useless
French phrases, how will we ever
make it in big-league New York jour
nalism? Maybe I’ll be content to be
an adulte terrible, which I suppose is
better than being a terrible adult.
WH: You’re how old?
CG: 31.
WH: Was turning 30 traumatic for
you?
CG: No, it was wonderful. It was like
the dam broke. I was finally relieved
of the potential of a being a child pro
digy in anything.
WH: Was there ever any question that
you were?
CG: No, but this made it official.
WH: How did you get into
photography?
CG: I’d studied it a bit the first time
I went to college, back when the
dinosaurs roamed the earth. Then,
when I got out of drama school and
moved to Portland I discovered some
thing interesting. A city the size of
Portland could support dozens of
commercial photographers, but do
you know how many stage directors
it could support? Zero. I suppose that
if I could really make a living as
anything in the best of all possible
worlds, it would be as a stage direc
tor and playwright, but it’s a moot
point. So I started looking around.
How can you make a decent living
and not be bored to death? I did a lot
of freelance writing in those days, but
I was Basically supporting myself as
a house painter. Then, about three
years ago, I took a few of my old pic
tures from college down to Kevin
Murphy at Northwest Magazine, and
he was very encouraging. It didn’t
take me long to notice that when I
sold them an article with photos, I was
paid twice as much for the pictures
as for the writing. And the pictures
were a hell of a lot more fun. So that
became a regular working relation
ship which has continued, and which
has really given me a chance to
educate myself.
WH: Photography is a competitive
field. Have you had much other
encouragement?
CG: Anybody who thinks pho
tography is competitive should go out
and try to make a living in the theatre
for a while. What I have found is that
people in photography, at least in this
part of the country, are some of the
loveliest people I’ve ever met. That
in itself has been an encouragement.
I’ve never run into anyone who wasn't
willing to fall over backwards to give
me some information on how to do
something. I remember the first time
I met Bruce Forster [a Portland com
mercial photographer,—Ed.] He was
looking at these slides of mine, and
he said, “Looks a little cool,” mean
ing they were too blue. Well, at the
time, I didn’t know what he was talk
ing about. I said, “Yeah, it was about
45 degrees that day.” And he didn’t
bat an eye. Now that is a lovely
human being!
WH: Are you having much success in
Eugene?
CG: I’ve really just started. I’ve been
supporting myself largely with my
writing since I moved here. I’ve final
ly put a commercial portfolio to
gether, and I’m starting to make the
rounds. The art directors I’ve met
have been very .nice, very encour
aging.
WH: But no work?
CG: I’m sure as soon as word gets
around that if I don’t work my
wonderful cat will starve to death, the
phone will ring off the hook. Actual
ly, I’m a little limited at the moment
Continues on page 16
Photograph by Cary Groner
Old Growth Forest near Short Sands, Oregon Coast. Second place winner in the Carnegie Museum of
Natural History’s international photographic competition.
J
MCER
Photograph by Cary Groner
White Train Protester, Vancouver, Washington.
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