Cranes and Conversations
Jill Metcoff and Diane Farris
October, 2008-January, 2009

The Notebaert Nature Museum
2430 N. Cannon Drive
Chicago, IL 60614
773.755.5100
www.naturemuseum.org

We are photographers and friends who recently reconnected and discovered that our homes in Wisconsin and Florida have an unexpected and powerful connection: we dwell at the opposite ends of a Sandhill crane migration route. The cranes have become an important presence in each of our lives and photographic work. Our collaboration began in 2003 with photographic “migrations”, visiting and studying the connections between “home” and “away” for both the cranes and ourselves. This is the shape of our project: the particularity of place, Wisconsin and Florida, and the deep connection of each to the whole.

Carl Leopold/Jill Metcoff: The Aldo Leopold Reserve
Views from the 1930's and the 21st Century
2007-2008

Exhibit inaugurating the new Legacy Center will be on open-ended display. Check website for dates.
Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, Baraboo, WI
www.aldoleopold.org

Thirty odd years after the first encounter, I reread A Sand County Almanac and revisited the land surrounding Aldo Leopold’s Shack as both artist and landowner. I went to see what clear thinking, teamwork, a good understanding of ecosystems, and time can accomplish. The Aldo Leopold Foundation staff indicated points of interest and then generously let me explore and photograph without any agenda. It is a joy and privilege to have the opportunity now to pair some of these photographs with Carl Leopold’s vibrant photographic record of his family at work and play more than 60 years earlier. These photographs continue a tradition of discovering Aldo Leopold’s words and celebrating this landscape.

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