Irish Photographer’s McCarthy Love Affair

Michelle McAfee - CRR Staff

Redheaded, blue-eyed photographer Paul Scannell from Dublin, Ireland, was hell-bent on visiting Bus 142, or the Magic Bus, where Christopher McCandless’ journey ended near Denali National Park. In 2015, after a failed attempt to reach the remote bus site, Scannell and his travel companions wandered around the state. They heard about a quirky town called McCarthy.

“That’s all we heard,” Scannell said. “It’s a quirky, weird town with loads of abandoned stuff. So we visited McCarthy for one night, and I didn’t leave for three months. It was pretty special.”

The underlying force that sent Scannell across the Atlantic Ocean to Alaska that year, was the passing of his father after a very long illness.

“I wasn’t inspired by my job or life in London anymore, and I needed to just roam. I was really heartbroken, and Alaska was on the bucket list,” he said.

Scannell said he understands the controversy around the Magic Bus and has run into Alaskans with varied opinions about the “Into the Wild’’ story and film, but getting there was very meaningful for him. After three failed attempts, he finally reached the bus in 2016.

“My dad was a fireman, and I got to leave one of his little fire brigade buttons on the bus,” Scannell said. “It was very special.”

Scannell left Ireland in his 20s and moved to London, where he made numerous attempts at university but kept dropping courses. Scannell studied auctioneering, inspired by the “Antiques Roadshow’’ and his love for old things. He thought it would be a fun thing to do. But, he said, “I realized I hated wearing shirts.”

Scannell then stumbled upon acting but dropped out of that, too. Then he took a foundation course for portfolio preparation. It was his third attempt at further studies, and he fell in love with photography. This was in the ’90s before digital photography took off. Scannell said, “It was a darkroom, film-based study. I kind of let it choose me, and after that one-year course, I got directly into a diploma program, and from that a degree.”

Photography to Scannell is personal. Rather than studio work, he is drawn to natural light photography because it gets him into the open and allows him to develop an intimate relationship with the landscape around him.

“It’s like having a best friend. I know that sounds a bit naff, but having my camera with me means I’m never alone. Every time I go to new lands, it’s like getting a new set of eyes,” said Scannell.

Photography is mindful. Examining a subject’s mood, color, texture, or surface connects to how you feel in that landscape. He said, “It’s incredibly personal and positive. I love it.”

After years of studying intricate skills, details, and techniques for film and darkroom, Scannell felt threatened and challenged by the incoming tsunami of the digital age. Computers made these processes easier, doing much of the work photographers were specifically trained to do back in the day.

“To be honest, I was a bit of a curmudgeon, a grump about it,” Scannell admitted. “The journey has been really good on this because before, photography was a rich man’s game. It was open to those who could afford the equipment and the courses. It was a very involved process. With digital photography, the ability has been handed back to the people.”

He said creativity is much easier now, and he is inspired to see kids on apps like Snapchat experiencing photography through filters and digital wizardry on their iPhones.

After one of his Alaska trips, Scannell returned to Dublin, and discovered an art gallery in the back of four Georgian buildings near the precinct where he was staying. He thought the local people might like to see his Alaskan landscapes, so he held an exhibition of his work in the gallery. It received press attention in Ireland and beyond, and he ended up on national radio and TV.

“It was this crazy week where everybody wanted to know about Alaska,” Scannell said. “It’s an exotic thing. If you say, ‘Alaska’ people have a burning curiosity.”

“The Irish Times,” “The Telegraph,” and “Smithsonian Magazine” featured Scannell’s work.

“I found out about the Smithsonian article on my birthday, and I actually cried about that one - to be featured in ‘Smithsonian Magazine’! I’m proud of my work, but Alaska is what really inspired people,” he said.

Scannell returned to McCarthy in 2019 as an artist-in-residence with Wrangell Mountains Center.

“When I decided to stay that first summer in 2015, I was the Wrangell Mountains Center gardener, taking photographs while I was there,” he said. “To return a few years later as an artist-in-residence was an honor.”

That year during his residency, Scannell posted photos of the mines he photographed near McCarthy on Instagram. American-based publisher Fonthill Media, who publishes the America Through Time collection of books, found his work.

Scannell said, “I got an email saying, ‘Would you like the opportunity to do ‘Abandoned Alaska’?’ That was one of the best days of my life. I just couldn’t believe it. I would never have had the confidence to seek that out.”

Most of the book was already compiled when he received the request, but Scannell wanted to visit a few more mines, particularly Bremner. There was an attempt to get to Glacier Mine with Wrangell Mountain Center’s Executive Director Jon Erdman, but they got lost and ended up back at Jumbo Mine. A moody mist rolled in over the scenery, and Scannell captured the images. His previous photos of Jumbo Mine were bright and sunny, not the aesthetic he was after.

“I want that moody, forgotten, forlorn imagery, so it was a happy coincidence that we got lost,” he said. Scannell’s book “Abandoned Alaska” was released in March 2020.

This summer, Scannell returned to McCarthy to teach a photography workshop with photographer Anna Mikušková, who grew up in the Czech Republic and is currently based in Alaska.

Mikušková’s photographs and artist books have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are held in private collections in the United States and the Czech Republic. She is also a writer with essays published in “The Maine Arts Journal” and “On Landscape.”

“We want this workshop to be a conversation. It’s about connecting with why we love imagery and what drives us to take photos,” said Scannell.

He laughs and shares a quote he loves from famous master candid photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson: “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”

He wants workshop participants to feel comfortable sharing their images and would like each participant to bring two to three of their favorite photos to display on a screen. The group will engage in a Q & A and constructive criticism of each other’s work.

The Wrangell Mountains Center is sponsoring the one-day Photography Workshop on Saturday, July 23, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. The group will hike around close to McCarthy and shoot photos together. Scannell said all skill levels and equipment are welcome.

“Some people are going to have iPhones, some will bring SLRs, and the one thing that ties it all together is: What story is the imagery telling?” Scannell said.

“This workshop isn’t about sitting there listening to me rabbit on about why I love photography. I want to find out why the participants love it. They all might teach me something I don’t know.”