Tag: White Sands National Monument

Lure of Shadows

I find something peaceful about these photographs. Looking at them recalls for me the days spent wandering alone. Now and then, when I was close to the road or near one of the trails, I would see other people. I might even hear them. But head north west, toward the San Andres mountains and soon I was all alone. Wandering up and down the gypsum dunes.

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After about an hour they all began to look alike. The sun is relentless and seems to burn from above and below. A hat scarcely protects you from the glare so much light reflects up from the ground. Everywhere is either white sand or pale blue sky. It is easy to lose your way. There are no trails, no posts to mark the way. I understand how people get lost out here and, tragically, die from heat and dehydration. “What will I find over the next dune?” I wonder as I continue deeper into the dunes.

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I paused near the top of each dune, marveling at the sight. As afternoon wore on, the sinking sun started casting amazing shadows, giving the dunes texture and shape that they lacked when the sun was higher. There are no footprints. No evidence of the last person who passed. I might be only a mile or so from the road, but I feel like I’m a million miles from anywhere. Just me and these mesmerizing shadows.

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For some people, lush forests are a paradise. They long for the sound of a creek or the wind through the trees. For me, these desolate, expansive, unforgiving spaces are more appealing. That afternoon no breeze disturbed the silence. No birds flew overhead. No water anywhere. And yet so much to see. The ripples and soft contours. The subtle shadowing.

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I had been wandering for hours but had probably walked only a few miles. Time and distance are different here in this pale landscape of undulating dunes — both seem meaningless here. I could have walked for hours more, captivated by the stark beauty of the swells and shadows, but late in the day I turned around and headed back. Any trace of my passage has long since disappeared. What is left are these photographs, the memories they evoke, and the hope of maybe one day returned to that land of light and shadows.

February 26, 2022
Quiet Simplicity

Or minimalism by another name, a name that for me better captures the value of an uncluttered photograph. Minimalist is descriptive and too often a goal in itself. But what if we try to describe the effects of such photographs, thinking more about the viewing experience and less about the composition? What is it about such photographs that I find appealing? The reduced color palette, the sparse visual field, the soothing nature of the scene. I took this photograph, so I can’t help but recall the day I wandered through the dunes, alone. No wind disturbed the silence. I recall all this when I see this photo.

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But even if I hadn’t been there to experience the scene, when I look at this photograph I feel a sense of calm. I assume it is quiet and peaceful, and I don’t want to disturb that quiet. Rather than describe this photo as minimalist, I prefer quiet because that’s what the photograph encourages in me.

March 10, 2021
Minimalism or Not

I know I am supposed to like and to produce minimalist photographs. Dominant, singular subjects against a diffuse and often homogenous background are striking. Particularly if black and white. There is no denying that the photographs of Michael Kenna, e.g., or Hiroshi Sugimoto’s still life and abstract work, some of Fan Ho’s street photography, again e.g., are striking. As are some of the portraits of Arnold Newman. Color photography too offers lovely examples, not infrequently the iconic lone tree on a hill (or versions of the radically expensive Rhein II). Long exposures of piers extending out into water, or the pylons that used to support some pier or other structure jutting out from the water in both black and white, and in color, make compelling and convenient subjects for minimalist photographs.

The lure of minimalist photographs is real. They offer a chance to pause and to think. There’s a type of quiet calmness to them. They encourage a sort of meditative reflection. The simplicity (minimalism) is a nice alternative to the frenetic and noisy world. But they risk being mechanical. They rely not on the interplay of different visual elements so much as the prominence of a single visual feature. The key is finding a way to isolate a subject. Sometimes this is easy; sometimes difficult.

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Photographs with more in them, more visual elements encourage a different way of composing and of viewing. Even when there’s a dominate subject, the busyness around that subject, thinking about what portions of the foreground to include, what part of the background to obscure with the main subject, ask me to think differently about composition. And the resulting photograph, while still offering a bit of quiet contemplation, prompts me to think more about the setting, the scene, and the context.

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March 8, 2021