Esha Chiocchio
While I am, of course, always interested in the creative process–it is why I started this project in the first place–sometimes photographers and their photographs want me to dive in beyond the photographic and find out more about the focus of the work. So when I was given a chance to investigate more about Esha Chiocchio and her project, Good Earth, this was a no-brainer for me. Recently, she was the recipient of CENTER’s 2022 Environmental Award for this project, and for very good reason. Umbrella topics like climate change, the environment, and biodiversity have more specific matters that Esha has helped me discover and understand and, frankly, pay more attention to. Learning about subjects like microbiology and soil regeneration was not something that I ever thought would come my way via photography, but here we are. Education through the visual arts shows us just how valuable our chosen field can be. Doing something because you love it while contributing to the better of humankind can lead you to what many might refer to as a “dream job.”
This all makes me realize how much I don’t know, but at the same time intrigues me enough to want to grasp. Esha does a fantastic job here in providing facts and principles worth grappling with, and I found her answers to my questions led me to pay better attention to the ground under our feet. My “dream job” might just be to help others do the same. So absorb these words and images. You will not be sorry.
APAPTIX Medicinal Garden, Nebaj, Guatemala
Bio -
Esha Chiocchio is a photographer and filmmaker who uses her combined knowledge of visual storytelling and sustainable communities to inspire social change. An optimistic realist, she is focused on solutions to societal and environmental challenges. Her current project, Good Earth, is a multimedia collaboration celebrating agrarians from diverse sectors who are revitalizing land through regenerative practices. She has photographed around the world for publications, non-profits, and commercial clients, including National Geographic, Bonefish Grill, and Jardins du Monde. Esha teaches photography to high school students on four continents with the Fredric Roberts Photography Workshops and to adults with the Santa Fe Workshops. In addition, she teaches climate and environmental programs through the Santa Fe Watershed Association. She is the president of the board of The Global Warming Express, and serves on the board of the New Mexico chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers. Esha’s photography has been exhibited in France, Korea, Mali, Washington DC, and Santa Fe, NM in both group and solo exhibitions. She has BAs in Anthropology and French from the University of Colorado, an MA in Sustainable Communities from Goddard College, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa. Her work can be seen at eshaphoto.com.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Thank you for joining me, Esha. First, I’d like to ask what moved you to dedicate so much of your life to the photographic arts? Was there a particular person or event that helped guide you in this direction?
Esha Chiocchio: When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, I used my Nikon FM2 as a tool to engage, record, and make sense of what I was seeing and experiencing. By chance, Sarah Leen came to do a story for National Geographic on Djenné, the market town closest to my village where I happened to be working on an archeological dig for a couple of months. After she left, she and her editor, Susan Welchman, asked if I would be willing to photograph the annual mudding of the mosque of Djenné to compliment Sarah’s story. To make a long story short, I ended up photographing that event and two of the images were published in the magazine. One was later chosen for inclusion in the book Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs. I had planned to go to graduate school for International Development after the Peace Corps, but the opportunity with Sarah and National Geographic changed my life path entirely.
MK: Is there anything from your past that you feel has had a dramatic influence on how you create images today?
EC: When I returned from Mali, I decided to study and work at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops where I spent two years immersed in the language of photography. There, I had the great fortune to learn from some of the giants in the field: Nevada Wier, Sam Abel, Eddie Soloway, Elizabeth Opalenik, Arthur Meyerson, Sean Kernan, Bruce Dale, Wendy Walsh, and so many others played a huge role in shaping my photographic eye.
MK: I must congratulate you on winning the 2022 CENTER Environmental Award for Good Earth. How do you expect this to help move the project forward?
EC: One of my biggest challenges is marketing. I would much rather go out and create than spend time at a computer promoting the work. My hope is that the CENTER award will increase the exposure not only for my work as a photographer but for the important topic of land stewardship.
Jardin Suspendu, Plougastel, France
Watering Cacti, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, USA
Reunity Resources, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Harvesting Forbs, Truchas, New Mexico, USA
Plugging Mushrooms, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
MK: I’ve noticed that you mention Good Earth as a multimedia project. How are you making your final presentations with it outside of the photographic?
EC: Knowing that images alone could not convey the complexities of regenerative agriculture, I wrote a grant proposal to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Healthy Soils Program to fund the Good Earth project. I reached out to Mary-Charlotte Domandi, producer of Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast who proved an invaluable collaborator. She interviewed each of the agrarians about their approach to improving the microbiology in the soil, drawing carbon down from the atmosphere, increasing ground cover, and all the other ways they are building resilience in the land. I then hired Madison McClintock who edited the images and words together into short multimedia videos. Each one is about 4-5 minutes long and looks at a different approach to rebuilding soils and rehabilitating the land. They can all be seen on my website and most of the interviews have been turned into hour-long podcasts on Mary-Charlotte’s show. A few articles have been published about the project and the videos have been screened in classrooms, local movie theaters and a dedicated outdoor movie night at Reunity Resources followed by a Q & A with the farmers and filmmakers.
MK: I’m always interested to hear about projects that tackle environmental issues. This idea of soil health is new to me, but the way you have written and presented it is absolutely fascinating and makes such perfect sense. The project is based upon your local landscape in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area, but do the same concepts and principles seamlessly cross over with other types of environs?
EC: Yes, the basic principles are relatively universal, but the approach can vary from place to place. Without stating it overtly, the series aims to highlight the Five Healthy Soil Principles, all of which can be applied in any environment:
Keep soil covered
Minimize soil disturbance on cropland and minimize external inputs
Maximize biodiversity
Maintain a living root
Integrate animals into land management, including grazing animals, birds, beneficial insects, or keystone species, such as earthworms.
New Mexico is a high desert environment and has its own challenges with limited rainfall, trends for hotter and dryer periods, and a shift in precipitation patterns from snow to rain due to climate change. Our biggest challenge is water, however, for every one percent that we increase organic matter (carbon), the water-holding capacity of the soil improves by 20,000 gallons per acre, thereby adding resilience to both flooding and drought. The necessity to rebuild soils is universal and there is an urgent need for people in all climatic zones to move away from chemicals and plows and embrace healthy soil principles. If everyone shifted to a regenerative approach, the benefits would reach far beyond the field: a drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide; a reduction in aquatic dead zones due to excess nitrogen and chemicals in agricultural runoff; an increase in the nutrient value of food; reduced exposure to carcinogens (herbicides/pesticides); improved wildlife habitat; and so much more.
MK: Are there any plans to use the project to educate and inspire others to accept and apply these ideas within other communities or industries? Is there a plan to expand the project outside of your local area?
EC: The goal of this project has always been to inspire others to apply these principles wherever they are. Good Earth was photographed during the pandemic when crossing state lines was more challenging, but I would love to cover other areas. I am a traveler at heart and love photographing stories of climatic, environmental, and social solutions.
Sylvia y la Frutilla, Cordillera Nahuelbuta, Chile
Soil Catcher, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Reunity’s Sunflowers, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
MK: Is this more about what governments or corporations need to do to help avert climate change, or is there something that can be done on a more personal level at home? What can people do to adopt some of these practices for themselves?
EC: Everyone can play a role in rebuilding soils. The simple act of composting could make a huge difference, especially if a lot of people get on board. We are currently extracting nutrients from the soil (in the form of food) and then throwing food waste into landfills where it doesn’t have the oxygen and other conditions to break down. The result is methane, a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide due to its larger molecule size and increased ability to trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Conversely, if everyone composted their food waste, rather than producing methane, that same waste would increase carbon in the soil, turning it into an asset that reduces greenhouse gases and improves soil health for the next growing season. Everyone can also vote with their dollars by supporting local, organic farmers who practice these healthy soil principles. Local produce, meat, bread, cheese, eggs, and so much more can be found through farmers’ markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), or direct online sales.
MK: There is a segment of your photographic practice that has you teaching at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. Do you find that doing so also helps inform how you make images for yourself?
EC: Definitely. I love teaching because it forces me to articulate how to use a camera with purpose, craft a story, edit, sequence, etc. It’s easy to take those things for granted after a while, but when teaching, I must step back, look at the big picture, put feelings into words, and help others find their own voice. In so doing, I too find that I am changed by the process and interaction and my work evolves as a result.
MK: Moving into some more general questions now, how do you know if you’re ever really done with a specific body of work? Do you ever go back and revisit images or collections to improve upon what you felt had been previously finished?
EC: That’s a good question. I’m currently revisiting the work from Mali to rescan the transparencies, use the improved Photoshop capacity to refine the files, and explore printing options. For the Good Earth project, I needed to complete the eight videos within six months to fulfill the deliverables for the grant. However, I realized that the compressed time frame forced me to spend less time at each location than might have been ideal. With eight mini-stories running simultaneously, I photographed 1-3 locations per week and went back as often as possible to get different activities, story angles, etc. If I could do it over again, I think I would either do four farms (or less) per growing season or cover the eight farms over a two-to-three-year period so that I could increase the depth of the photography. That project feels a bit encapsulated due to the parameters of the grant, but I have continued to photograph two of those featured in the original project (Horned Locust and the RainCatcher). I would like to continue with the concept to cover other farms and activities. There are so many people doing this important work and we all need more examples of solutions and hope in our lives these days.
Goatherder Love, La Cienega, New Mexico, USA
Tooley’s Apples, Truchas, New Mexico, USA
Louis Love, Mesquite, New Mexico, USA
Goatherder’s Rest, Pecos, New Mexico, USA
Calm Rush, Djenné, Mali
Mud Wall, Djenné, Mali
Mussel Pull, Chonchi, Chiloé, Chile
MK: What does a typical creative day consist of for you? Do you consider yourself a workaholic, or do you keep a schedule of time for family, socializing, vacation, etc.?
EC: I will start by saying that there really is no typical day. My preference, when photographing a project, is to fully immerse myself by staying on location, biasing my shooting times to sunrise/sunset, using the middle of the day to interview people and/or strategize how best to maximize the remaining time, and being open and nimble to take advantage of opportunities that arise. When I’m home, I find it harder to really get into a creative flow due to the many distractions (two teenage kids, a dog, a vegetable garden, several boards, local jobs, etc.). I strive to have a healthy work-life balance but find that I am most creatively productive when I can step away for a period of time (ideally 1-4 weeks) and give my entire focus to a project. When I'm home, I keep regular work hours for pre-/post-production, local assignments, business, printing, exploring new techniques, learning, etc. By 5 pm, if I don’t have a local shoot, I am generally back in family mode, picking my daughter up from school, making dinner, and just being present for my family.
MK: With regard to creativity and the projects you take on. Do you feel it is better to create work that fits a particular style for yourself, branch out and try new things, or better to leave yourself open to possibilities that happen organically?
EC: I think it really depends on the project. With the Good Earth project, I felt the need to stay within the 35mm format and color documentary style so that the final multimedia videos would have a degree of consistency. That said, I love trying new things. I was especially enamored with Polaroid SX-70 Time Zero film, which I used to bring on my documentary shoots. When the opportunity presented itself, I would make a Polaroid of the scene and then mush it into more painterly renditions. (These can be seen on my website here.) Now that Time Zero is no longer produced, I feel I am still trying to find a replacement. I just spent a week doing a Solarplate Printing workshop with the hope of being able to transform photographic images into something more complex and unique. While it was fun to explore, I feel I am still on that quest. I’m definitely open to possibilities and do push myself to try things and expand my tool kit. I recently got my drone license to change my perspective and allow for greater flexibility in storytelling.
Julio y la Bicicleta, Estalí, Nicaragua
Salmon Fresco, Chiloé, Chile
Naina, Chonchi, Chiloé, Chile
MK: Thank you so much for your time and efforts, Esha. I genuinely appreciate it. Finally, I’d like to ask how you see your work progressing into the future? Is there anything new you are currently working on that we should be on the lookout for?
EC: At the end of 2020, I had the opportunity to photograph a desert restoration project about 6 hours from Santa Fe. I have returned a couple of times and plan to follow it for the next few years. If the method proves successful, it could be a model for other areas that are similarly impacted by overgrazing. What I like about this project is that it incorporates human interest and environmental restoration while being visually compelling, especially with the drone. In more general terms, I feel most alive when I am photographing people doing inspiring, solution-oriented work. I love feeling like I am helping tell the story of someone/something I believe in.
You can find more of Esha’s work on her website here.
All photographs, ©Esha Chiocchio
