Even though photographer and writer Robbie Kaye has only lived in Santa Ynez for five years, she feels a lifelong connection to the landscape surrounding her.
“In the time I’ve been here I have seen big oak trees downed and broken from the lack of water and blackened from fire,” she said. “I feel somewhat protective and possessive of this beautiful land.”
Kaye has prepared a new book, a detailed study of three trees in the Santa Ynez Valley. She tells the story of the trees, which she named Solitude, Magic, and Majesty, over a course of three years. The trees survived fires, flood, and drought and still remain solid fixtures in the landscape she loves. To mark the release of the new book, Kaye will host a presentation at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature on June 24.
Kaye’s background is in music; she was trained as a classical pianist and later studied jazz. She studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and later photography at the University of Southern California. Kaye co-authored the book, Rendezvous with Light, with California Poet Laureate Carol Muske Dukes. Her work has been featured at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston and at galleries in Los Angles and Portland.
Music led Kaye to photography, which she said she approached “looking for visual melodies” in her work. She said the connection between visual arts and music is similar to the connection between notes in a melody.
“For me, the elements contained in a particular photo do the same,” she explained. “In one way or another, they relate to each other as a whole. Sometimes that relationship is obvious and sometimes very subtle, depending on what is in the frame.”
Kaye, who originally hails from New York and now lives in Santa Ynez, began her work as a photographer in 2002, when she purchased her first camera for a trip she had planned to Spain. She said she had always been infatuated with photography and dabbled in the medium while on tour as a musician.
“This trip gave me the opportunity to be the actual camera person,” she said. “The architecture and landscape in Spain gave me no shortage of subjects to document. I loved taking photographs and creating visuals that I could go back to and relive a certain time and place.”
Kaye, who now uses a Nikon digital camera and edits in Photoshop to create all her work, said the idea for Endurance wasn’t purposefully planned but rather simply evolved during her explorations over the past three years.
“I didn’t set out to create a collection, but by year three, I noticed that I had hundreds of images of three trees in particular,” she said. “I started comparing them to each other in different settings. Sunrise, sunset, and in all the different seasons. I visited them just about every day on my way to get my morning coffee and then became curious to see what they looked like in sunset as well.”
Kaye said she couldn’t wait to get to the trees before sunrise to see what the light would unveil. After awhile, the trees became familiar to her, to the point where she compared them to friends.
“I started thinking about how long they have been there and wondering all that they have seen in their lives so far and all that they have endured,” she said. “I wished I could hear their stories, and then I wanted to tell their stories or the stories I imagined they might tell if they could. I also wanted to share and highlight the beauty here and hopefully bring awareness to the importance of protecting and preserving it.”
The names Solitude, Magic, and Magesty were reflective of the experiences she had when she visited them.
“Solitude is the first tree I see when I turn the corner and it stands alone, strong in stature,” she explained. “Magic is the tree whose trunk is so bent you would think it could not survive as it does, so to me, it is magical. Majesty stands in the distance behind Magic, and sometimes when the sun rises behind it, the branches light up, and simply put, it looks majestic and proud.”
Kaye said there will be 20 pre-release books available for purchase at the event on June 24. Each one comes with a print from the book. Kaye, who will also be signing books, said she plans to unveil a new piece of work that day.
“I hope the images and writing from my book will touch people,” she said. “When they see the trees and the land they will take a minute longer to look around and appreciate it a little deeper, in whatever that looks like for them.”
If Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose were a tree she would be a weeping willow. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2018.