by Brooke Walsh
Thisweek Newspapers

Rikk Flohr swears photography saved his life.

Before the Apple Valley man bought his camera he weighed 260 pounds and had high cholesterol and blood pressure. Now he's dropped over forty of those pounds and reduced both his cholesterol and blood pressure enough to be taken off medication.

"Photography was a big part of that," he said.

Last April his passion led him to Badlands National Park where he served as an artist in residence for 35 days.

"I got to stay in the park with essentially unfettered access to everything," he said.

As an artist in residence he was also given an apartment to spend the month in, a walkie-talkie, park vehicle and the task of documenting the landscape and animals that make up the South Dakota park.

Out of 15 candidates for the artist in residence post, Flohr thinks he was chosen because of his variety of skills in photography, videography and writing.

"The biggest advantage to me was I got to spend 35 days working on my craft," he said.

While in the field the corporate slave turned self-employed photographer, videographer and designer used video equipment to create timelapse films of the landscape changing as weather came in, as well as videos of wildlife.

But he primarily stuck to still photography.

Flohr would rise early each day, heading out before sunrise to set up. He'd capture the sunrise, shoot in the early morning hours, then head back to his apartment to shower, eat and nap. At 4 p.m. he'd head out again to capture dusk and sunset.

"I saw every sunrise and every sunset and very little midday," he said.

"Every sunset was just fabulous out there; they were always good."

Flohr said he found the park to be a difficult place to shoot because its consistency forced him to reinvent the landscape. Part of his preference for early and late light was based on the fact that the sky seemed to be the only thing changing in the landscape. With the changing light, nuances within the barren foreground could be revealed.

Flohr's favorites of all his shots from the badlands are of a rock formation called a castle, cascaded in light.

"I actually sat there for four hours waiting for a shaft of light," he said.

When he tired of being challenged by the changing of daylight, Flohr tested himself by limiting his lens choices.

"I started having telephoto Tuesdays and fish eye Fridays," he said.

This was hard for Flohr, who normally does not travel light, preferring to have every piece of gear he may need.

"I'm one of those photographers -- does anyone have a crescent wrench with them? -- and I probably have one," he said.

While in the park, Flohr felt a duty to document what was there, not just take footage of the things he was drawn to. In doing so he shot turkeys, buffalo, snakes, deer and even grass, which turned out to be one of his favorite subjects.

Grass, of course, amplified the most apparent changing force in the park -- the weather.

For 35 days following the cycles of sunrise and sunset, Flohr shot about 10,000 pictures and took about 100,000 steps.

The rangers were surprised by this, noting that most artists in residence stick close to the road. Flohr, however, preferred to immerse himself further in the setting of the place.

What he found there, drifting over the barren landscape was a solitude unlike what he had previously experienced.

"The Badlands is incredibly quiet. You can year yourself breathe; you can hear your heart beat, and you can hear the footprints of everything in the valley," he said.

"The solitude got to me sometimes."

Though he expected and craved the solitude of open nature when heading into the project, he didn't expect to find himself wondering what would happen if he fell or ran into a dangerous animal while alone in the valleys of the Badlands in the depths of night.

"I kind of got over my fear of being in the dark," he said.

More of Flohr's work can be viewed at his Web site www.badlands.fleetingglimpse.com.

For more information about Badlands National Park visit www.nps.gov/badl.