G. Steve Journal

Let Them Be Left

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

                                 Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

That is Why...

I came across the following quote by composer Jean Sibelius from a 1919 interview and thought the sentiment could apply equally well to any non-verbal creative endeavor: dance, painting, photography...etc.:

If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression.  Music is something autonomous and much richer.  Music begins where the possibilities of language end.  That is why I write music.

Freedom Redux

The peripatetic fashion photographer Bill Cunningham is the subject of a new documentary film about his life and work.  He's especially well-known to readers of the NEW YORK TIMES for his candid snapshots of everyday New Yorkers who exhibit, in Cunningham's estimation, a sense of style.

After decades of work, he clearly still enjoys what he does and has cultivated a very bohemian, free-spirit approach to his craft.  Talking about the time he refused to take money for his work..., Cunningham says: “You see, if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid. ... Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive.”

Earth's Eye

I posted this image to the gallery Facebook page as emblematic of the space between seasons - no longer winter but not quite spring. The landscape is muted and monochromatic here in the northeast and not many images suggest themselves.

The reflections in this vernal pool deep in the woods provided a nice counterpoint to an otherwise homogenous scene.  It's shape and setting, fringed by trees, recalls Thoreau's observation:

"A lake is the landscape’s most expressive feature. It is earth’s eye..."

 

 

 

Receptive

Many of the images I capture when I venture out I could not have planned. Even when I do have a certain type of image in mind - think dramatic landscape - it's more likely that I'll return with something I had not envisioned.

If I am receptive to the environment I am passing through, I may be lucky enough to "see" a unique pattern or scene that gently impinges on my consciousness until I respond by framing it in the camera's viewfinder.

Out skiing this past season I paused to catch my breath and this delicate spray of branches just off the trail caught my attention, one of an infinite number of equally captivating vignettes....