Photo: ©Meadeaglephotos
When Sally Eagle, MBA’78, and her husband, Dan Mead, backpacked around the world as amateur photographers in 1980, they had to carry their film, which forced them to consider each shot carefully. There wasn’t a focus other than personal enjoyment for their photography until 2009, when Eagle and Mead held their first photography show at a school where he once had worked. Eagle says, “We quickly realized that photography could be an effective adjunct to a curriculum.” So began their professional educational work, mostly with small private schools throughout New England, to produce shows that help teachers augment lesson plans.
Eagle says, “Our shows create dialogue and encourage students to come up with their own thoughts. Challenging kids about the long-range implications of vanishing cultures or melting ice caps is important.”
According to Eagle, her photography is photojournalism “of a sort,” but not of street or urban settings. Her focus is three-part: wildlife, landscape, and culture. “Sustainability is a recurring and evolving theme,” she says. “I have witnessed the encroachment of humans in animal habitats, and I have seen remote cultures that are threatened and changing.”
Choosing favorite subjects is difficult for Eagle. “The Himalayas are very special, as is the Buddhist culture. So perhaps, in my heart of hearts, Bhutan is my favorite place.” Eagle’s passion for nature and wildlife also is apparent in her photos. “Being in Africa in an open vehicle with a lion two feet away from the wheels is an amazing sensation—it gets the adrenaline going. And being 10 feet away from a mountain gorilla is magical.”