Turner captures region's beauty, residents' lives

Lisa Turner is an extraordinary photographer. Her work hangs in art galleries and sits on fireplace mantles. High school seniors post her pictures on Facebook while families use her images for Christmas cards. She picked up the camera because of the beauty of North Idaho and is comfortable shooting inside the studio or outside in natural surroundings.

At a recent interview she and I talked about influences. We talked about growing up and dysfunctional families. We talked about life experiences and what can be learned from them. This is a brief summary of our discussion:

Turner’s mother was a petite, popular cheerleader whose biggest claim in life was that she was homecoming queen at her East Los Angeles high school. Her father was extremely charismatic and outgoing. Women loved him. Both were light-skinned Mexicans growing up in a dark skinned Southern California world during the heyday of Cesar Chavez.

“Life ended for them after high school,” Turner said. “My dad wanted to become a cop, but Mexicans hate cops. But he did it anyway. No one wanted my mom to marry a cop. But she did it anyway. They both had narcissistic personalities and they couldn’t feed each other’s egos.”

The marriage was tumultuous. Her dad had to retire from the police force, the reason for which was shielded in untruths. He became a bouncer and then the manager of a hotel.

“My dad was a notorious liar and womanizer. He would say he was going to work late, then my mom would track him down and sure enough, he’d be with another woman,” Turner said. They would scream and yell in anger one night and in passion the next. She was nine when they divorced.

Her mother passed away a few years ago. Her father, now on his third wife and involved in a cult-like religion, lives in Montana. Turner, after trying for years to maintain a relationship, is estranged from him.

“I credit my mom with my photographic artistry. I guess you could say, I’ve turned into my mother,” she said with a laugh. “She would make costumes and pose all the neighborhood children. There’d be all these kids in elf costumes stuck between fake flowers. It was unrefined, I mean tacky!”

In junior high school Turner made a camera out of an old oatmeal box and was hooked. “That was the most wonderful thing. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen,” she said. “Then, when I was in high school I was good in English so when they were looking for journalism students, my teacher put me on the list. As soon as I saw the dark room I asked to join that class,” Turner said.

The influence of the journalism teacher, Mr. Dupratt, was huge. “He was an amazing teacher, no one wanted to leave his room. He saw potential in me. I stayed in the dark room all the time rolling film, processing film, all of it,” Turner said.

It was in high school that Turner met her now husband, Ron. He was on the baseball team. Mr. Dupratt called him the “best pitcher in the Valley” and assigned Turner the role of sports photographer. Turner really liked this boy. Too well one might say. She became pregnant. She finished her junior year before her daughter was born.

Ron worked out with the Rangers, but his father kicked him out of the house and he was forced to work several different jobs to keep up their little apartment. They both got their high school diplomas and then went on to get their college degrees.

Turner worked as a patient advocate in Los Angeles County and became a certified trainer for Franklin Covey teaching the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Highly Effective Managers. In the age before digital, photography was an expensive hobby, so Turner put the camera away.

“I didn’t believe in it anymore. I was raising a child. I was working full time. People would invite me to take pictures and I would turn them down,” she said.

But that would all change when the Turners, now parents of three children, moved to North Idaho.

“It’s so beautiful here. After we’d lived here a few months I asked Ron for a camera. I started posting pictures on Instagram and got positive comments. So I was thinking, maybe I do have talent!” Turner said. “Where I came from in the California desert, there are tumbleweeds, Joshua trees and sun. Here there’s color, contrast, foliage, water, the elements. It’s everything you want. I wasn’t inspired until I got here.”

And, inspired is a great word to describe her talent. Turner puts herself into each picture, figuratively, not literally. But, she literally makes a fun time out of each sitting. Her photos never come across as staged or posed, but more as a reflection of who the subject really is.

“I think my sense of humor helps people relax in front of me and I’m not at all judgmental,” she said.

Turner is Pend Oreille Arts Council’s official photographer and her work will be on displayed at their December 15 exhibit at Columbia Bank. She is also one of the primary photographers for Sandpoint Living Local. You can see her work online at lisaturnerphotog.com and there’s a contact page there if you’re interested in hiring her. You can also find her on Facebook.

“I’ve experienced so much in life,” Turner said, “I think it helps me connect to people. I am a better person than I ever was. I have better relationships. I love talking to people and asking ‘what’s the one thing in the world people should know about you?’ I look at the world differently. I don’t take things at face value but I’ve survived in this world with those goggles on.”