Photographer and poet captures the essence of ‘Pure Michigan’

If Lansing photographer and poet Wayne Richard Pope’s new book, “Michigan in Prose, Pictures and Poems, Volume I,” came with a soundtrack, it would start with something like “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” 

The 96-page volume is an enchanting look at Michigan from the lens of an accomplished photographer, accompanied by essays and poems espousing the author’s love for the state.

His photographs capture scenes of many things we’ve come to identify as “Pure Michigan,” to borrow a line from the state’s travel campaign: abandoned cottages, lighthouses, rushing streams, farmhouses and virtuoso sunrises and sunsets. 

The book retails for $49.95 and is available on blurb.com. You can also purchase a PDF copy from Blurb for $9.95. It will soon be available in ebook form on Kindle.

A Michigan travel brochure from the mid-1960s is one reason he ended up in the state. After a stint in the Army where he was stationed in Taiwan as a Mandarin language interpreter, he was bouncing around the Texas desert when he can across a brochure titled “Water Wonderland,” showing photographs of rivers, streams and the Great Lakes.

He immediately fell in love and said, “That’s the place for me.” In an impetuous move, he hopped a train to Detroit.

“I didn’t have a job, but I came across an ad in one of the Detroit daily newspapers. It said, “Wanted: Young College Men,” he said. “It was for selling Collier’s Encyclopedias and knocking on doors. I was good at it, and I stayed at it for two and a half years, living at the downtown Detroit YMCA. I left when I had saved up enough money to go to college, and I moved to Lansing.”

At first, he attended Lansing Community College, studying journalism and working for the school’s newspaper, The Lookout. He then transferred to Michigan State University where, in addition to taking photojournalism and writing classes, he worked for The State News for two years as a photojournalist.

It was there he connected with several Lansing photographers, including David Olds and Norris Ingells from the Lansing State Journal.

When he graduated in 1985, he worked as a freelancer, taking nature photographs for Michigan Out-of-Doors Magazine and selling his photography and writing to publications like AAA’s Michigan Living magazine.

“Cover art became my bread and butter,” he said. 

In the ‘90s, he began teaching photography at Lansing Community College, where he still teaches in the continuing education department. This fall, he’ll teach a class on smartphone photography, and he also hosts workshops on nature photography in his free time.

“I saw the smartphone technology coming and was ready for it,” he said. “Something like 80% of all photos are now taken by a smartphone.”

Pope said this past winter was very fruitful. He worked six to eight hours a day and published four new editions of photography and poetry, including books about Michigan birds, gardens and nature photography — his favorite subjects.

“The easiest thing was selecting the photographs. I wrote every day in long hand and then dictated the copy. It was a laborious process,” he said. “The hardest thing about doing the book was doing the research and making sure my facts were right about location and spelling. I had to get it right. It’s my journalism training.”

The photography in his new book represents all four seasons. He even embraces Michigan winters, as shown in some of his selfies standing in raging snowstorms.

Paging through the book, readers will find a technique most photographers don’t employ: putting yourself in a photo. Using time release, Pope shows himself in various scenes, like fly fishing and hiking. In his hands, it’s a charming technique.

Pope says part of his productivity this past year is due to the fact that he’s approaching 80 and knows his days are waning like the evening light. In one of his poems, he writes about his last will and testament to “scatter my ashes on the Platte River.”

“I still shoot every day. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, and I am always on the lookout for photo opportunities. My mindset is to never pass up a photo opportunity. You never know if you will ever get back to shoot it again,” he said. “Always be ready to capture the moment. Know your camera and share your knowledge with others just learning the art.”