Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Photos of horses and cancer survivors

Anne Stansell turns her lens toward subjects that really matter to her

T.S. Last News-Bulletin Staff Writer; tslast@news-bulletin.com

Los Chavez Anne Stansell has a unique perspective. It comes from being an immigrant — she moved to New Mexico with her family from Holland when she was 14 years old — and it comes from being a cancer survivor.

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Her view on life is often framed in the viewfinder of her camera. Though she's worked locally in real estate for 25 years, Stansell is also an accomplished photographer. Her images have appeared in such publications as American Parade, Newsweek and Self magazines — not to mention the Valencia County News-Bulletin and on the cover of the Valencia and Socorro counties phonebook.

"I've always been interested in arts — visual things," says Stansell, who dabbled in drawing and painting when she was a younger woman.

While her job in real estate helps pay the bills, and she really doesn't make any money off her photos, Stansell says photography is more than a hobby.

"Hobbies are what you do to get your mind off of things. Photography takes a lot of concentration," she says.

Stansell took up photography later in life.

"I took a photography class as part of my recovery from breast cancer," says Stansell, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1987.

Stansell had her breasts removed to eliminate the spread, and, like countless other women, had implants inserted.

"The implants hurt my health worse than cancer," says Stansell, who suffered the effects of silicon leakage — chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, vision problems, skin discoloration and Grave's disease. "All implants are for cosmetic purposes. They tell you that you need it for your mental health, but putting foreign objects in your body is not a good solution."

Stansell had the implants removed but says she still feels the effects of the toxins that remain in her body.

Stansell formed a support group of women who have had similar symptoms. It was about that time she had taken up photography and it was suggested that she might do a photo project that would help get the word out about the dangers associated with breast implants.

Stansell got the cooperation of dozens of women to pose topless.

"I wanted to put a face to the statistics and started taking pictures of these women," she says. "We're real people with real families."

The images make a powerful impact. They were used in advertisements and in pamphlets warning of the dangers of implants. Stansell, who has become an advocate for the cause, has traveled to Washington, D.C., to share the striking photos with the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

"I showed them one after another to drive the point that these are their mothers, their aunts, their grandmothers," she says.

Those same images will also appear in an upcoming documentary "Absolutely Safe?" on the issue by Carol Ciancutti-Leyva of New York. Stansell is one of several women featured in the film, scheduled for release this fall.

To take portraits, Stansell said she uses a Voightlander camera that uses a larger than normal negative.

"The large format negative makes for excellent pictures. The larger the negative the bigger the print, so I use a lot of that with portraits," she says.

Her implant project was done in black and white.

"It was more appropriate way of doing that project," she says. "The horses, I do in color."

The horses she refers to are part of what might be described as a "pet project," but these ponies are nobody's pets. They're the wild horses involved in the New Mexico Horse Project, a group headed by Carlos LoPopolo. Its aim is to preserve the bloodlines of wild horses that through DNA analysis have been identified as being direct descendents of the barbs who were introduced to the continent by Spanish explorers. They are considered the first American horse.

"It's a wonderful thing that they're out in the wild," says Stansell.

After her implant photo series gained notoriety, Stansell says the horse project became her next project.

"As the stories came out locally, I was asked by the New Mexico Horse Project to be their photographer," she says.

Stansell was present when the first of the New Mexico Horse Project's horses were released into the San Pedro Creek Preserve on the east side of the Sandia Mountains in 2002. It was then and there that Stansell captured one of her favorite photos — one that was reprinted in American Parade and made the cover of the Directory Plus phonebook for Valencia and Socorro counties.

Stansell took many photos that day, but "that was the most dynamic," she says.

Stansell told the story of how the photo of Sombrio, the lead stallion, was taken.

Sombrio was released along with two mares and their foals. While the others freely left their trailer and ran up a nearby hill, one foal stayed put.

"He wanted to stay behind and play," Stansell says.

The Horse Project volunteers tried to coax the colt to join its mother.

"We chased, pushed and even carried him some, but he would always come back down the hill," Stansell says. "Then an amazing thing happened."

Sombrio, who was not the father of the young horse, came around from behind and approached the colt. Stansell, who was standing part way up the hill, said she watched as the colt nudged and bonded with the stallion. Sombrio then started walking up the hill toward her with the colt trailing behind.

"I was poised, camera in hand, between Sombrio and the mares — a somewhat dangerous place to be," she says.

Noticing her, Sombrio became agitated. He swerved and skittered from side to side.

"I stood my ground, thinking, 'This is my shot,'" she says.

Stansell clicked the shutter on her 35 mm camera just as Sombrio began to charge in her direction. She stepped aside at the last moment, feeling the horse brush by.

Interestingly, the colt is almost totally obscured in the photo. The only evidence it's there is a portion of its ear is visible behind the stallion's backside.

That photo of Sombrio is the only one Stansell has for sale. It's only available at Johnson's Gallery in Madrid, just a few miles down the road from where the photo was taken.

Stansell says she'll continue to serve as photographer for the Horse Project, but she keeps one eye open for that next great shot.

Having survived cancer,and still dealing with the effects caused by her implants, she's eager to share her perspective of the world with others.

"I'm kind of ready for the next project. I'm always looking for another interesting project," she says.

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