Like anybody, a tennis player or a dancer, you learn the technique, and then when you're in the moment of great impact, you have to get into the flow and have that balance between technique and creativity. ... It's up to me to create the receptive environment. The world doesn't sit up and say 'Cheese' for you. — Nevada Wier

For nearly three decades, Nevada Wier has photographed people in some of the world's remotest places. A longtime fan of kayaking and mountain climbing, she took the turn from outdoor adventure to traveling photographer — or, to use her emphasis, photographing traveler — in 1979. "It began in Nepal, where in order to go mountaineering you have to go on these long treks through fabulous villages," she said in a recent interview. "I began to realize I was more interested in being in those places and meeting the people than in the climbing."

Wier's image Nepal. Outside Tumlingtar. Porter Heading to Market Carrying Pots. 1985. was the first photograph she took that made her think, "Yeah, this is what I want to do," she said. It's among the nearly 60 color prints featured in her first photography exhibition — a 25-year retrospective of her work — opening Friday, Jan. 25, at Verve Gallery of Photography. The show contains images from personal projects as well as images published in magazines like National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine.

For the exhibit, Wier immersed herself in a significant new endeavor of digital printmaking. "I refused to make color prints until recently, when advances in digital technology have given me the same kind of control I used to have in the black-and-white darkroom. Also, there was such a great selection of black-and-white printing papers. Now, with digital work, it has taken a while for the quality of papers to evolve and for me to discover what's best. I use both Epson and HP printers because they give me different qualities, depending on each print."

She had originally made most of the images with film cameras, and those photographs first had to be converted to digital form. Then, prior to printing, she began the laborious process of perfecting each image in Photoshop. The adjustments she made are related to "dodging" and "burning" darkroom techniques. Wier does not crop or change the content of her images. "Some of these prints took days, weeks, months to get everything right," she said. "I actually went back and read the old Ansel Adams books about the print, because what I had always done was shoot slides and give them to magazine editors. Getting back into printmaking was very exciting."

Wier is one of the professional photographers who works in both worlds: traditional and digital photography. She was accustomed to using whatever medium and materials the magazines wanted her to use. Today, she admits to being fond of "the techie stuff" and is interested in digital alternative processes. "There are so many possibilities, and there's a greater receptivity in the fine-art world now toward the more experimental eye. It was nice to get away from the toxic darkroom, but the downside now is staring at the computer. Still, I'm fascinated by technology. I'm even taking a workshop this week about podcasts and blogs."

Born in Texas and raised in Washington, D.C., Wier chose to study at Prescott College in Arizona because, she said, it was the first in the country to offer outdoor education as part of the curriculum. She came to Santa Fe in 1974 as an instructor for Outward Bound, an organization that offers personal-growth programs in the context of challenging expeditions. Around the same time, her interest in photography blossomed. Her first camera was a wooden Deardorff view camera. She misses it now, but at the time the big camera and heavy tripod proved to be bad hiking companions. Wier soon moved on to smaller cameras made by Pentax, Mamiya, Nikon, and Canon.

In 1979, the directors of Outward Bound asked her to be the course director for the program in Nepal. The year before that assignment, Wier made a trip to Bolivia. "I have the dubious honor of having circumnavigated Lake Titicaca in a reed boat for three and a half months," she said. "We went down there to climb, but the country was having a coup, and they confiscated my climbing equipment because they thought they were weapons. So instead we had reed rafts made by the same guys that built Thor Heyerdahl's boat. It was absurd, because none of us were sailors, and the same time it took Thor Heyerdahl to cross the ocean it took us to go around this lake."

Wier, whose work is represented by the Getty and Corbis stock-photo companies, has worked throughout Asia as well as in Africa, New Zealand, and South America. She is a Fellow in The Explorers Club and has been an instructor for the Santa Fe Workshops for 11 years. One of her courses offered through the workshop is a program she designed, based in Bangkok, Thailand. "We get people from all over the world, including from Thailand," she said. "We spend time in the city, and we do field trips to fishing villages. It's all digital. It would be impossible if we were using film to do all the developing and to do the critiquing."

At the time of her interview with Pasatiempo, Wier had just returned from a get-familiar trip to southern India. She has often traveled to tribal areas in northern India, but the country's populous south is new territory. "I have a special interest in the festivals," she said. "I love being in a new place, but I equally love having the luxury of going back to places I have been and learning more about the people and the customs."

Familiarity is an advantage for a photographer, as was the case when she was invited to a private wedding, pictured in India. Ladakh, Leh. Ladakhi Moslem Wedding. Bride Being Dressed. 2000. Being there is the first requisite behind such images, Wier said; second is the ability to capture special moments or to find interesting people. One of those is the child in Ethiopia. Lake Tana. Boy With Handmade Goggles. 1999. "That was from a National Geographic story I did on the Blue Nile. I traveled the Nile for two months. This kid made those glasses for himself. That was one of the first photographs I took, and it was used as the lead-in for the story. That's so unusual, to get something that works in your first roll of film."

Among the most gorgeous images in the show is Myanmar. Amarapura. U Bein Bridge. Sunset. 1999. The compelling composition shows a big tree and bicyclists walking their cycles on a bridge, all in silhouette against a brilliant orange sky. "That's a great bridge," Wier said. "You can't take a bad picture of that bridge, but I was in a boat and I maneuvered myself to get the right angle."

Arriving at the right image is a balance of thinking, feeling, intellect, and intuition, said Wier. "This is where there's not that much difference between an amateur and a professional. Yes, I have more experience, so I don't have to think as much when I raise the camera. Like anybody, a tennis player or a dancer, you learn the technique, and then when you're in the moment of great impact, you have to get into the flow and have that balance between technique and creativity. You always have to do the camera adjustments, but what I really want to be doing is to concentrate on the person. It's up to me to create the receptive environment. The world doesn't sit up and say 'Cheese' for you."

Cultural anthropologist Edward T. Hall, in books including 1959's The Silent Language, was an early influence on Wier. "He was the first to talk about the fact that each culture has a different sense of physical space and about body language." Such information, and the ability to attune oneself to various cultural situations around the globe, proved invaluable. Regarding the unavoidable, occasional faux pas, she said, "I can tell when I've done something wrong, but most cultures are very forgiving. People recognize when you're trying."

Wier has been a frequent guest on Travel Channel Programs, and she probably would not feel out of place doing a substitute spot for Andrew Zimmern on the network's Bizarre Foods show. Of course, as a longtime visitor to Nepal, she has enjoyed yak-butter tea. "I love it," she said. "I have a limited sense of smell, so I can eat most anything. I can also sleep anywhere, and I can drink. ... I'm lucky I have an iron stomach, and I can drink, because I travel a lot by myself, and you don't say no. If someone offers, you don't say no."

Have resident males challenged her capacity for liquor in any of these places? "Yeah, the Russians," she said. "I've won, and I've lost."

details

• A Nomadic Vision: 25 Years, photographs by Nevada Wier
• Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25; exhibit through March 8
• Gallery talk 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26
• Verve Gallery of Photography, 219 E. Marcy St., 982-5009