{"id":13530,"date":"2026-02-12T13:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T20:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-photographer-chronicles-the-people-of-durango-bayfield-and-beyond\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:24","slug":"local-photographer-chronicles-the-people-of-durango-bayfield-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-photographer-chronicles-the-people-of-durango-bayfield-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Local photographer chronicles the people of Durango, Bayfield and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Durango
Durango photographer Cary Lindley has chronicled people he has met in Bayfield, Durango and beyond. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Cary Lindley didn\u2019t start out as a street photographer.<\/p>\n

The retired schoolteacher, who hails from Houston, has taken his photography hobby to the streets of Bayfield, Durango and around the Southwest, chronicling the interesting people he comes across and putting the photos on a series of Facebook pages \u2013 Bayfield Colorado 2025 (which he plans to take down soon), Faces of Durango and Portrait Outlaw.<\/p>\n

\n

On the net<\/h4>\n

Check out photographer Cary Lindley\u2019s Facebook pages:<\/p>\n

Faces of Durango: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FacesOfDurango<\/a>Portrait Outlaw:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/portraitoutlaw<\/a>Bayfield Colorado 2025 (will soon be taken down): <\/strong>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BayfieldColorado2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A cruise through all three pages offers black-and-white photographs as diverse as the people who frequent the area: Lindley has captured images of cowboys, people at work, tourists, buskers, people in restaurants and, on the Portrait Outlaw page, a man he met at a gas station who has the longest, most luxurious beard as well as piercing eyes.<\/p>\n

\"Cary
Cary Lindley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lindley said the street-photography projects began last year when he was living in Bayfield. He said he was growing tired of the pictures he had been taking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been photographing barns and old trucks, the mountains, all the beautiful scenery, the old mines and stuff like everyone else,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing that off and on for eight years, since I retired, and every time I after I did it, well, it was fun, it was nice, but just nothing that meaningful to me, just another pretty photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lindley
Lindley said street photography is challenging and fun. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Watching a documentary about street photography piqued his interest, and like many of us do when we want to learn something new, he took to the internet to do some digging around. On YouTube, he found New York-based street photographer Paul Baldonado\u2019s \u2013 Paulie B\u2019s \u2013 series \u201cWalkie Talkie.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Lindley was inspired.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tried to take what I learned there and do it my way,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause mainly street photography is taking candid shots, whether you\u2019re photographing scenes or people; you\u2019re not asking permission, you\u2019re just out there. (Photographers) can be very aggressive, but that\u2019s in New York. We\u2019re not in New York, and so I didn\u2019t want to be aggressive, but I thought it looked challenging and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the series offered valuable tips about approaching strangers, Lindley said his experience as a schoolteacher put him ahead of the game: He was used to talking to parents and students, so he wasn\u2019t bothered by that aspect. In fact, he enjoys the challenge and the people he meets, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Not
Not many people refuse his request for a photograph, Lindley said. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt started working in Bayfield, and I got to have a lot of conversations with people I would have otherwise never met had I not stopped and asked to take their photo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Do people ever say no when he asks to take their photo?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot near as much as I thought,\u201d Lindley said. \u201cI would say 95 percent of the people I ask say yes. Now, I don\u2019t ask everybody, because I do take some candid shots from time to time, especially when the weather is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the people he picks, he said when he first began street photography, he\u2019d take photos of anybody he crossed paths with. But now that the number of portraits he\u2019s taken is beginning to stack up, he\u2019s being a little more judicious when he chooses his subjects.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cEvery
\u201cEvery picture I post is unique; it\u2019s for that moment,\u201d Lindley said. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI look for people that don\u2019t look like myself, basically because I look just like an old, boring schoolteacher,\u201d Lindley said. \u201cSo whether they have a beard or they have a cowboy hat or something that\u2019s just a different style about them \u2026 I\u2019m getting pickier, because as the numbers start to add up, I\u2019ve started telling people not to smile in the photos \u2013 to look serious, look mad, anything but the cheesy smile, because all my pictures started looking the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindley also subscribes to the Japanese philosophy of \u201cwabi-sabi\u201d he discovered through photographer Tatiana Hopper. It\u2019s the idea that a photograph doesn\u2019t have to be technically or artistically perfect, it just needs to capture a moment in time \u2013 a moment that will never, and can\u2019t ever, be replicated. He said it really hit home for him on his yearlong Bayfield project, when one of the oldest couples he photographed died and the family contacted him and asked if they could use the photos.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango photographer Cary Lindley has chronicled people he has met in Bayfield, Durango and beyond. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI found out that my project, the pictures don\u2019t have to be perfect. They don\u2019t even have to really be that good,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact is, I\u2019m documenting things that are changing every day. And you know, every image, as (Hopper) says, it\u2019s sort of a farewell, because it can\u2019t be repeated. \u2026 Every moment is precious and passing, and so are people. \u2026 It\u2019s only by chance that we cross paths. Every picture I post is unique; it\u2019s for that moment. And I get to have a conversation with a stranger that probably I would have otherwise never talked to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango photographer Cary Lindley posts his photos on a series of online pages. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And while we\u2019re living in a world that can feel as if we\u2019re being pitted against each other, and doom scrolling is only adding to our collective anxiety, Lindley said he hopes looking through his pages can give people a renewed sense of community, even in these difficult times.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango photographer Cary Lindley has chronicled people he has met in Bayfield, Durango and beyond. (Courtesy of Cary Lindley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of wonderful people out there, and you look at the photos and you can see that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact is, the news itself is so depressing and so dividing of everything, but me out there on the street with my camera, taking photos of people from all walks of life, they all have one thing: They\u2019re good people. I want people to look at that and smile when they see all these people that are in their community, and know that Durango is a special place, just like Bayfield is a special place. If you\u2019ll follow my page, you can see that life is full of good things and there\u2019s good people, and good things are happening every day in this town and everywhere. We just don\u2019t always get a chance to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lindley: \u2018Every moment is precious and passing, and so are people. … It\u2019s only by chance that we cross paths\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,731,950,28,822,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-bayfield","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-photography","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19024,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13530\/revisions\/19024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13530"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}