Visual Storyteller Mary Lee Agnew

×

Expand

Photo by Tom Jenz

Mary Lee Agnew

Mary Lee Agnew

Better known as the “Fox Lady,” Mary Lee Agnew is a unique Milwaukee personality. She has coalesced her love of urban wildlife and photography into her own singular art form. Twelve years ago, she connected with a family of foxes living quietly in the city. Through relentless dedication, she has been documenting their generational stories through her photography.  

In the Riverwest area where she lives, she is known as “the fox lady.” In person, Agnew is rather shy and rarely opens up until she gains trust. In that regard, she is kind of like the foxes she embraces. As she once told me, “I’d rather be with animals than people.”

×

Expand

Photo by Mary Lee Agnew

Fox photo by Mary Lee Agnew

Fox by Mary Lee Agnew

She was born in Chicago. Her dad was a Lutheran minister, and the family lived in a parish house located in a north side neighborhood of immigrant Greeks, Germans and Japanese. She attended Chicago public schools among ethnically mixed children but very few Hispanics or Blacks. When she was 10, her dad moved the family to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where he had been hired as the minister at Our Saviors Church. Three years later, he lost his job because he was an outspoken opponent to the Vietnam War and supporter of the Civil Rights movement, and the church council members were conservative. Agnew was 13 when her family moved into inner city Milwaukee where her dad became minister of the Church of Incarnation on 15th and Keefe. His parishioners were predominantly Black.

“This was on the heels of the race riots in Milwaukee,” Agnew told me, “the Civil Rights protest marches led by Father Groppi. My dad was involved with those marches. It was 1970, and white people were fleeing the inner city. I attended Peckham Junior High, the students nearly all Black. Classrooms were overcrowded, which led to total chaos. Rough environment, yelling, lots of fights. Teachers lost control, you couldn’t learn anything. Finally, they closed the school, and I was bussed out to Wilbur Wright Junior High in Wauwatosa. Those Wauwatosa kids hated us inner city kids. Bad experience for me. In my life up to age 14, I had gone to six different schools in six years. It was hard for me to make friends.” 

Finally, she settled in at Milwaukee Washington High School on Sherman Boulevard. The student population was huge, about half Black and half white. Because she had gone to so many schools, Agnew had few friends. It didn’t help that she was also quiet and introverted.

Over the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Agnew. Not long ago, I met her at a coffee shop in the Riverwest area, and we talked. Although somewhat nervous and soft spoken, she bloomed with sincerity.

You have an art background, majoring in the arts in college. 

For my first year, I attended UW-Oshkosh where I majored in art, but I left the school because there was too much drinking and partying. I came back to Milwaukee, worked in a factory for a year, then attended UW-Milwaukee and eventually graduated with a film degree. I love movies, especially the classic films from the Hollywood studio era.

As I recall, eventually, you started earning a living as an artist model. What art schools did you model for?

I started nude modeling for drawing classes when I was at UWM, and I modeled part time at the Milwaukee School of Art & Design downtown, and also in the Art Museum classes, and then at Alverno College. But I stopped the modeling job for a few years after I got married and had my daughter. When she was four, I picked up modeling again and expanded my clients - MIAD, MATC, Cardinal Stritch, Alverno and UWM. I worked as an art model for about 30 years, then retired about five or six years ago. What I liked about modeling is that I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I am shy and kind of a loner.  

You are an ideal art model, tall and slim and in very good shape.

I did get a lot of modeling jobs. I guess I was in demand.

All those years, you lived in the inner city, Riverwest, where you still live today.

Right. 30 years in the same small house.

Let’s talk about your passion in urban wildlife photography. You did not get interested in photography until you were a little older, right? I read this about you: “As an artist’s model, Mary Lee Agnew commuted by bike to art classes around Milwaukee. Along the way, she noticed the surprising amount of wildlife present in Wisconsin’s largest city.” Is this how you got started?

I always was interested in wildlife because I love animals. I was kind of claustrophobic, and I got tired of taking the bus to my art model jobs. I began to ride my bike everywhere. Didn’t matter the weather, heat, rain, snowstorms or in freezing temperatures when nobody was outside. I saw deer, snowy owls, hawks, and all kinds of birds. Then, I discovered a family of foxes living on my route along the Oak Leaf Trail. I got very curious about these beautiful animals living right in downtown Milwaukee.

×

Expand

Photo by Mary Lee Agnew

Canada geese by Mary Lee Agnew

Canada geese by Mary Lee Agnew

You are generally somewhat of a loner. You don’t much like being around people, at least crowds of people. I understand that you have anxiety issues and panic attacks. Can you describe that condition?

It’s very scary. When it’s bad, I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin. Sometimes, I can barely breathe. Other times, I want to escape, jump out a window. I’ve had panic attacks where I thought I was having a heart attack. Adrenaline rush. Fight or flight. Fortunately, I have medicine to help me.

I think maybe your connection to urban wildlife helps control your anxiety.  

That is absolutely true. I suffered from mild anxiety long before I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and panic attacks. I think this condition was brought on by being in crowded situations. For instance, I cannot get on an elevator or be in a crowded room. In most of the places I’d see the wildlife there would be no people around. These animals were so quiet and peaceful, just going about their lives, and it would bring me into the moment and bring me incredible peace. I could escape the constant distraction of manmade noise.

I’ve had the good fortune of accompanying you to the lakefront where you interact with the wild foxes. You seem very much at peace when the foxes are around you, and you don’t touch them or disturb them. You are just quietly hanging out as they are.

I think you’re right. I learned that being around the foxes I needed to be quiet and accepting of their space. It was their home, not mine. I do not move towards them or reach for them or make noises. After a long period of time, they began to trust me and moved very close to me.

Over many years, you have followed generations of a family of foxes.

Long time ago, I got to know the dad fox, whom I named Big Red, and he started hanging out with me. The mother was very shy, and it took me a year to get close to her. Finally, Big Red brought me the kits, his children. I was astonished. Slowly, I got to know these foxes, their distinct personalities. I even named them. 

Somewhere along your journey, you began photographing the foxes.

Eventually I wanted photos of the foxes because they are so beautiful. I started out with a cheap film camera and shot stills and movies of them. One day, I ran into a man photographing birds, and I gave him a cheap calendar I had made from my wildlife images. Later, he gave me a used Canon digital camera with a 300mm lens. I was then able to capture the interaction of foxes and also other urban wildlife. I kept this camera for many years before I bought my own lightweight camera.

As I’ve gotten to know you, I’d describe you as an eccentric. To be clear, here is the dictionary definition of eccentric—"a person of unconventional and slightly strange views or behavior.” Does that fairly describe you?

I didn’t use to see myself that way, but as I’ve gotten older, I realize that I am an eccentric, mainly because I never liked being around groups of people. For many years, I biked down to the lakefront and hung out with the foxes for hours at a time. I guess I found more peace with the animals than with people. I suppose that is strange. It’s also kind of eccentric for a shy person to be a nude model, but I liked being around artists and I didn’t have to talk to anyone. Talking makes me nervous around people I don’t know.

You also had a bike accident.

Several accidents, but the one along the lakefront was really bad. Lying on the ground in great pain, I thought, should I call 911 or hang out with the foxes? Fortunately, I ended up in the emergency room. I was badly hurt. Still have aches and pains.

You are known in Riverwest and on the internet as the Fox Lady.

People and kids call me that. I don’t mind. I see it as a compliment.

You have always been athletic, a runner and a bike rider. You are an advocate of walking, hiking, and bike riding to observe urban wildlife. I think you even advise people interested in wildlife to avoid driving their cars. 

Absolutely. If you are out on foot or out on a bike, you will see and hear so much more. Milwaukee is full of wildlife. We have the Milwaukee River, the green corridor running through the city. We have the lakefront, the Oak Leaf Trail, and beautiful parks. We live in a migratory path because animals gather where there is an abundance of water. If you are in a car listening to music or talking to a passenger, how can you observe wildlife? If you are outside in nature, you are more a part of the world.

You are recognized as an important wildlife photographer in the Milwaukee area. You’ve had exhibits of your prints.

Yes, at the Urban Ecology Center, the Jazz Gallery, and a solo show at Waukesha Technical College. The Schlitz Audubon Center in Bayside asked me to do a solo show of my work. Very gratifying. I also spent ten years selling my calendars and notecards at the Green Market on North Avenue near Beans & Barley. That was a wonderful experience because I got to talk to people about urban wildlife, and I would get feedback on my photography. I built a local following. I also have hundreds of followers on Facebook, Instagram and on the international photography website, Flickr, where I’ve met so many wonderful people worldwide.

You once wrote, and I quote: “My favorite photos that I have taken are ones with an interaction between animals or birds and images that have a deep emotional impact. Animals have emotions and feelings, much like ours. If more people understood that animals are not much different than we are, maybe we would learn to care more, and hurt them less.”

Some of my favorite images include animal parents watching over their young in a natural setting. How can people not relate to that? We take care of our young like they do. If wild animals act aggressively, it’s because they are protecting their young. Also, in my style of photography, I try to show animals interacting with each other. In other words, I tell their stories in their environment, where they live, how they live.

I understand. Human beings have been storytellers since the caveman days, people all grouped around the campfire. What advice can you give to novices who want to interact with urban wildlife?

Get to know your subject, visit them where they live and do your research through reading. If you want to photograph animals, you need time and patience. A long-term commitment. And be sure to always respect the animals.

You can purchase Agnew’s calendars, note cards and prints through Fine Art America:  fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mary-lee-agnew

You can view her wildlife images through Flickr:  flickr.com/photos/132279118@N03