THE FRONT

NATURE ALWAYS WINS

A Q&A WITH ROBBIE BRINDLEY.

Maybe, like me, you first encountered Robbie Brindley’s photography by way of social media, where his work jumped off the screen with kinetic depictions of Hot Springs revelers, fresh off the dance floor at the town’s annual Valley of the Vapors festival or frolicking in front of a minimalistic backdrop on the way into a documentary film festival afterparty. What you’ll find in his new book, “Kudzu and the Usual Erosion,” though, is unabashedly still, heavy, humid — and probably best summed up by this passage in its introduction: “At some point, we all start to crumble; the things that once made us feel strong are soon made weak, and remind us of just how vulnerable we are. We’re the same as an old house on a humble road or a storm moving across the Delta. We’re here and we’re strong, then we aren’t. … . This is a study on those things — on understanding childhood or the people that influenced it. It’s a constant reminder of how frail we are and how nature always wins. It’s a way of coming to terms. It’s a desire to live peacefully with demise.”

How did you pick these subjects? They don’t seem like the sorts of things you pick out beforehand as destinations, but things you happen upon on your way to somewhere else.

It was definitely just driving around. Going for a drive is a good way to deal with anything. Especially in the Delta. If someone is, like, right on my tail, I’ll just pull over and let them go around. ‘Cause I just wanna be out there and listen to NPR, or some music. There were plenty of days when I went out and didn’t even take a photo. … It’s really odd and it was scary, but I did this project without developing any of the film prior. I shot a roll and I would keep that roll. I developed it all at once. Because I didn’t want to be like, “Oh, here’s this photo, it needs this other kind of photo to complement it.” If the whole project came out and it was all roads or something — like, subconsciously, I was doing that — then that’s how I wanted it to be. A friend was telling me, “You’re absolutely an idiot, because you don’t know if you have a project or not. Like, what if the rolls all come out black or something?” But I didn’t want to have a photo and have it start to become this ego-driven thing. I just wanted it to be like when I was younger. When you’d just take a Polaroid because you felt like taking a Polaroid. … It’s very honest, and the way they were chosen is almost childlike. Just because they looked neat, or odd. And whether or not you like it, decay is part of the South. Decay is everywhere. It’s hard to keep mold out of a house in Arkansas because it’s so humid. The grass grows fast. It’s great, but when you’re trying to be a human living in that space, it can be hard. … I wanted it to feel like West Helena in August, which is an awful thing. What’s weird is that I find those things endearing now that I’ve embraced living in the South. I started wearing tank tops, and I was like, “OK, now I get it. I look like a redneck, but I get it.” Those sorts of things are funny to me. Like, “This field is really beautiful, but do not run through it, because it’s full of copperheads.” I like it here. I find it very romantic.

MATT WHITE

WHAT ALBUM(S) ARE YOU LISTENING TO

THESE DAYS? Will Johnson, “Wire Mountain” and Jason Molina, “Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go.”

Yeah. I find that as I get older, I mark the year differently. And maybe more like the way I marked it when I was a child, when the first firefly of the year felt like the beginning of something.

Yeah, and the past year did that to us, too, where we were very slowed down. You notice when the dogwoods or the Bradford pears start to bloom, like “It’s almost here.” And then it starts storming. And then the fall comes and it gets quiet. Or you mark time by how bad your allergies are.

HIDDEN TALENT? I can nap anywhere. So obviously you took a huge risk developing

the film last thing, in such a volatile way.

FAVORITE GAS STATION FOOD? Hunt Brothers What was your reaction when you started to pizza. see the work? First, I was really happy to see that there were BIGGEST ARTISTIC INFLUENCE? People who photos on the film. My friend Annie Gerber live simply and work hard and live a normal, scanned all of it for me, and she’d send them quiet life. to me. And I was surprised at the diversity of what I’d done. … I’m not one to trust myself. And with this project, it was very personal because I had to trust myself, and trust what I was attracted to. … not pushing ideas away or pulling them in, and trying not to have pride in an unhealthy way.

… . If there’s anything the photos get across, it’s humility, right? It’s the idea you talk about in the book’s introduction, that nature always

wins, and that we are very small, and all these things will pass. Yeah. The losing of one’s self is a beautiful thing. I still struggle with all of those things, but I’m in a lot better place than I was before the project, as far as humility and patience. And hopefully grace and kindness. —Stephanie Smittle Find the book at robbiebrindley.com, and find the full version of this interview at arktimes.com/rock-candy.

WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK, ARKANSAS EDITION

The more you know.

BY BETHANY IVIE

If you’re one of those rugged hunterly types from Greenbrier or Pangburn, you can skip this part. There’s nothing here you don’t already know. But for soft-soled city slickers from urban locales, woodland encounters with bears, snakes and other wild creatures can be daunting. Should we venture out on rivers and trails, or is it better to stick to swimming pools and sidewalks? Experts from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission say not to sweat it. They offered up some reassuring advice about coexisting with some of Arkansas’s most formidable residents. So, which animals are truly dangerous and which ones should we not worry about too much? Hint: It’s not what you’d think.

THE BLACK BEAR Arkansas’s largest predator can weigh up to 600 pounds and stand 6 feet tall. But Kirsten Bartlow, watchable wildlife coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, points out that a black bear’s favorite hobby (after eating and sleeping) is avoiding human beings. “In this part of the United States we have black bears and they’re just not known for being aggressive creatures,” said Bartlow. “They’d really like as little to do with us as possible.” In the unlikely event you find yourself face-to-face with a bear (or another Arkansas predator like a bobcat, coyote or cougar), here’s what to do: • Don’t feed them. Keep food in bear-proof containers or hung in trees so animals aren’t attracted to your campsite. • Make lots of noise. This works as both a deterrent and a defense in acute emergency wildlife encounters. • Make yourself seem as large as possible by standing at your full height and raising your arms above your head or out to the side. Think large thoughts. • Stay put. Prey runs, you shouldn’t.

BEARLY A CONCERN: Black bears are too cute to do much harm.

SURPRISE!: This ringneck is just as nonplussed to see you as you are to see it.

ARKANSAS GAME & FISH COMMISSION

SNAKES “I guess what bothers me is the surprise factor,” said Trey Reid, assistant chief of communications for Game and Fish. “You’re hiking down a path or paddling a river and you look up and all of a sudden there’s a snake in close proximity. That can be a little unnerving.” Of the 36 different types of snakes living in Arkansas, only six are venomous: the copperhead, the cottonmouth or water moccasin, the western diamondback rattlesnake, the timber rattlesnake, the western pygmy rattlesnake (which is not as cute as it sounds, btw) and the Texas coral snake. You can find the local bible of snake identification in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s “Pocket Guide to Snakes.” But if you’re looking for a hard and fast rule it’s this: If you’re close enough to see the snake’s pupils or pattern … you’re too close. “If you’re close enough to mess with the snake, it’s close enough to mess with you,” Bartlow said. In the rare event that you find yourself on the receiving end of a pair of snake fangs, the solution is simple: Go to a hospital. Quickly. There’s no need to suck out the poison, rig up a tourniquet or cut around the bite. In fact, doing any of these things will probably only make the situation worse. TICKS AND MOSQUITOS As you see, fear of Arkansas’s predators and venomous snakes is largely unwarranted. Arkansas’s blood-sucking insects, though? They are an entirely different story. “When people ask me, ‘What are you most scared of in the woods?’ Or, ‘What animal are you scared of?’ It’s ticks,” Bartlow said. And Bartlow’s right to be cautious. Tick-borne diseases include Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme Disease, Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness and Alpha-Gal, a tick-borne illness that results in victims developing an allergy to beef, mutton, pork and all other meats that come from mammals. Mosquitos spread illnesses like the West Nile virus and the Zika virus, both of which are rare but can be serious. So if you’re going to be out in grass, wooded areas or places with lots of leaf litter on the ground, wear boots with your pants legs tucked in, Reid advises. Wear long sleeves and treat your gear with the insect repellent permethrin. For a chemical-free solution, embrace nature’s own pest control, Bartlow said. “You know, some people don’t want opossums in their yards, but opossums will eat lots of ticks. And bats can be a real pain because maybe sometimes they end up getting behind your shutters on your house and are leaving droppings, but they’re eating just thousands of mosquitoes throughout the summer.”