Dust from the road, air is heavy, sun overhead, footsteps crunching in gravel, crows calling, airbrakes on Rte. 201, breeze, birdshit, Budweiser cans, sensory overwhelm, chipmunk eating chocolate out of a Nestle's Crunch wrapper, wanting to be invisible to oncoming cars, distant sounds of house construction, dandelions, Emma's hermit thrush calling, daisies that will be gone by end of the month, shafts of sunlight in the thick woods, lupines so many shades of purple, burr in my shoe, dog barking, walking much more slowly than I anticipated, red squirrel chuntering, humans marking their property with signs, paint, ribbons and stakes, beer bottle cap with cigarette butt inside like a present, thunder, lightheaded while squatting down to look and losing blood flow, Oliver jogging by, dragonfly, matted fur of dead animal in the gully, thinking about the assignment, product versus process, lightning bug, getting hotter, branches broken and gnarled by machinery widening the road, cars kicking up dust as they pass, airplane overhead (wonder where it is going), swallowtails sipping pollen, wild strawberries, start earlier, go shorter, bring water bottle and bug spray, navigate to shadows on driveway to Cook's cottage, mosquitoes swarming, Evie hasn't mowed the fields, warped old glass windows, moth trapped inside, suspended animation, driftwood and leaf litter in Bigwood lake, lilacs in bloom, smell of dead animal, creosote and heat rising from the tracks, whose graffiti for George Floyd?, discarded railroad parts (ties, J shapes and partial cloverleafs, hundreds of pounds of steel), leg bones and hoof of a deer, shotgun shells, wild asparagus from bygone era of dining cars, milkweed sprouting, finding trail to First Beach, fallen trees across the path, dead perch on the beach, walking so slowly but hyperfocus makes me disoriented, sweat pooling, parched
This is wonderful Cathy. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe images and the writing are both so vivid and really create a sense of place and capture your thought process. Texture is such a strong element in many of these - I think you could make a whole series just focused around textures. I keep coming back to the red paint on the tree bark and the pink/red cable with the hanging ties. There’s something really mysterious about the image of the reflection with the two white pillars and the one of the water. You could also form many sub-groupings of these images around some of the repeating patterns (dots, circles, lines, colors etc.) Each one is compelling on its own but they really tell a story all together. The overall sense I get from most of these is the interaction between humans and nature. Do you know the work of John Pfahl? A different concept but these remind me of some of his work (esp the second to last image).
ReplyDeleteHi Cathy. Your eye for capturing detail is extraordinary. Your photos allowed me to experience your attentiveness on your walk. The words that you shared also beautifully expressed your efforts at paying attention to the little things. You have inspired me to look more deeply at my environs on my walks.
ReplyDeleteCathy, you are making me want to go back out and re-do week one, just looking at patterns really really carefully. You've captured some beautiful details and I'm even more engaged because I can't quite place my finger on what I'm seeing. I think the most successful photos for me are the ones that become something else entirely - so there's less context and more opportunity to get lost in possibility.
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