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Sacha Berger-Stuart

Discoveries in "The Great Unknown"
by Sacha Berger-Stuart in her own words

            Born in Berne, Switzerland, many years ago, I of course had no inkling that I would one day be living in the high desert of California, in the shadow of Mount Whitney and the Sierra Nevada.

            As a child I was drawn to the theatre. My mother felt I should learn a decent profession before throwing my life away like a gypsy. So I studied the art of photography in an apprenticeship.

            As there was no money available to study acting, I took a job as a lab technician and studied acting in the evening. My perseverance paid off. For eleven years I was engaged as an actress in repertory companies throughout German-speaking Europe. While working in Salzburg, Austria, an American film company was shooting The Sound of Music. One of the actors (the villain who gave the Von Trapp family away to the Nazis) and I fell in love. He asked me to marry him and come to Hollywood, where he made his home.

            As all signs pointed to a new beginning, I packed my few belongings and boarded a plane into the great unknown. I had three hundred dollars, two small suitcases and a lot of trust.

            My notion to continue my acting career once I learned English didn’t pan out. I was not the type they were looking for. I found quickly that money was sparse, due to the erratic nature of employment in the film industry. Well, bless my mother—I had another profession. And so, with extraordinary luck and hard work, a photo business grew around me.

            The clients were the film studios. My focus: the ever-increasing number of employees from all over the world, who took my total attention and care. We were a success! The major film studios became my clients. Exciting customers like Jacques Cousteau and Dino De Laurentiis hired me as a photographer to faraway places like New Guinea and Tahiti. Life was extremely full and demanding.

            When my husband died, it was suddenly all too much. I collapsed and wound up in the hospital, near death myself.

It was the beginning of yet another phase. As I couldn’t muster the usual energy, I began to listen to more quiet voices. I met Brugh Joy, who touched my spiritual nature. I studied with him for many years, shifting my attention to the authority of an inner life and inner voice. It made life much easier, much softer, much safer. And when the time came to sell the business, I was able to retire to Lone Pine, which for years had been my getaway place. When people would ask me Why always Lone Pine?—I would answer: “That’s where God lives.”

For my 70^th birthday I was able to fulfill a lifelong wish. I went on an African safari to Kenya and Tanzania. It was all that I imagined and more. To be able to bring some of the powerful images back to my beloved Owens Valley makes me very happy.