Photographer follows Monarchs to capture them on film

-WHAT: “Silent Journey: A Photographer and Millions of Butterflies Travel to the Heart of Mexico”
-WHEN: Opens at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 3 with a reception and gallery talk by Taylor. The exhibit runs through Oct. 18.
-WHERE: Babcock Gallery, Sweet Briar College
-COST: Free
-INFO: Contact galleries director Karol Lawson at or (434) 381-6248.

SWEET BRIAR — When photographer Medford Taylor returned a call to Sweet Briar’s college relations office one afternoon in July, the first thing he did was apologize. “Sorry I didn’t call you back earlier,” he said. “I was in a swamp in North Carolina, collecting chiggers.”

It turns out Taylor wasn’t collecting chiggers in the most literal sense, but working instead on a photo essay of a cypress swamp in North Carolina’s Merchants Millpond State Park. “I go back there with my kayak and keep making photographs, and one day we’ll see what happens with them,” he said.

Taylor’s latest photography exhibit, which opens Sept. 3 in Sweet Briar College’s Babcock Gallery, seems to have originated from this same sort of easygoing, adventuresome spirit. As the 69-year-old photographer tells the story, it all began several years ago while he was watching a TV news segment on the monarch butterflies’ annual migration to Mexico.

“In that piece, they did a short interview with (SBC research biologist and monarch expert) Lincoln Brower,” the Richmond-based photographer said. “When they said, ‘and he’s with Sweet Briar College in Virginia’ it hit me: He’s right here in my backyard.”

“Fascinated by the whole monarch migration thing,” as Taylor puts it, he called longtime friend Joe Monk, a studio art professor at Sweet Briar. Monk put him in touch with Brower and the photographer and scientist met and became friends.

“We got to know each other and have been good friends ever since,” Brower said of Taylor. “He’s an interesting fellow.”

Taylor made his first trip to Michoacán — sometimes called the “butterfly state” — in December 2005. He has returned eight or nine times since then, once with Brower, who at 77 years old still makes frequent trips to the area.

“Lincoln has been an inspiration for me because that guy is … still climbing those mountains, and those mountains are rugged if you’re going to get to the level where the butterflies are,” Taylor said.

“It can take a couple of hours. It’s rocky and steep. I just admire that guy so much. He’s such a pleasure to be around. I’m always learning. It’s like continuing education with that guy. He’s still chugging up those mountains every year down there. It’s hard work if you have a backpack and load of gear.”

The more time Taylor spent in Michoacán, the more he realized the monarchs weren’t the only colorful things in the mountainous region. The people were equally captivating subjects. “The culture is just fascinating,” Taylor said. “They have festivals of all sorts. Something’s going on there all the time.”

In some of Taylor’s photos, people and butterflies are entwined — a girl wearing a butterfly costume, a couple dancing the tango in front of a butterfly mural, monarchs flitting about the heads of people traveling down a highway.

The butterflies are ingrained into the Michoacán peoples’ identity, Taylor said. Taxis from the Monarch Cab Company troll for fares in the state’s capital of Morelia, and fishermen on Lake Pátzcuaro use butterfly-shaped nets.

Consequently, Taylor said, the exhibit will include more people than butterflies.

“I’ve never been able to quite decide to totally focus on people or wildlife. I like shooting both. So as a result, this (exhibit) ended up being the same way.”

Taylor is author of “Saltwater Cowboys: A Photographic Essay of Chincoteague Island.”

He has worked on assignment for Time, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Newsweek and other magazines. His award-winning work has appeared on the pages of periodicals and books all over the world.