Camp Notes No. 11

Strong Spirited Girls

Summer camps come in various types.

For this project I made the deliberate choice to photograph all-girls camps that focus on outdoor activities - a rulebook most camps were founded on - and empowering girls to be outdoors in nature. Most of the camps I photograph have the classic camp activities: archery, horseback riding, tennis, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, hiking, ect.

Ogichi Daa Kwe in northern Minnesota takes this to another level. Girls come to Ogichi to embrace the wilderness through canoeing trips that explore the many lakes and rivers that straddle the upper midwest and Canada.

I once spent a summer as a backpacking guide in Colorado where we took campers out for 5 days at a time. It was hard work and that was only 5 days!

These canoeing trips start at 8 days for the youngest campers, and can stretch to 60 days as campers get older. The girls paddle every day, their routes are long, and they often have to carry their canoes and packs overland - portaging - to reach the next campsite. These trips are difficult but they love them, and they come back for it summer after summer.

What a beautiful picture this paints of what a camp experience can do for a young girl. These girls are learning grit - learning to stick it out, to make hard and uncomfortable situations enjoyable. If you can do an 8 day canoeing trip, (and they start at 8-years-old!), think of the obstacles you can tackle later in life. When they return from these trips, they may be the same girls, but they are visibly and emotionally stronger for it

Ogichi is a newer summer camp. It was founded in 2004, which was a different thing for me to experience but it felt just the same as one started a century ago. It’s a well-oiled machine. Girls take on a lot of responsibility, even on the camp property, perhaps in preparation for the load they will carry on their trips. I watched campers take turns washing dishes after every meal and tidying up both their cabins and the shared spaces of camp.

I couldn’t realistically go on any of the trips (for obvious reasons), but my project is ultimately about camp as a sense of place, so I felt it was still important to capture what happens on the camp property while they prepare for these trips. Ogichi runs the usual rotation of activities while campers are on property but canoeing was the real heart of this place, so that’s mostly what I photographed.

As always, most of my imagery was captured on film, which will come through in the next few weeks. For now, here are a few digital frames to give you a glimpse into the world of Ogichi.

*One funny note from the week: my first night at Ogichi, a camper stood up at dinner to ask whether anyone had seen her Croc. She then held up her one remaining Croc. Somehow she’d lost the other one straight off her foot and had spent who-knows-how-long walking around camp in a single shoe. Only at camp…

Ogichi, thank you for having me!!

xx,
Amanda