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Light in Our Landscape
May 2004
Why do beams of light shine so beautifully through the trees on a sunny morning? Perhaps there is a slight mist in the air, although there’s no evidence of such a mist in our cover photograph. Or maybe it’s something the camera discovers in a longer than usual exposure. In any case, this month’s cover photograph starts us off with a brilliant image of light in our landscape.
In the first two pages of the portfolio, we see other images of light coming through the forest. In all of the sunlit photographs the trees play a critical role. Apparently we have to be in the shade of a forest to see the sun shining so brilliantly. As the poet, Vijay Seshadri, put it in his poem Tree, “rustling canopy all testify that it has won / its long negotiation with the sun, / and now simply distributes the breeze,/ and keeps guard over these….” But then we come out of the forest and look at a panorama of mountains under a clear blue sky and we see the sun in a different way, lighting up the distant slopes. Or perhaps, as in the next photograph, a few clouds come across the sky, and we look from above at a landscape of treetops with some lit by the sun and others in the shade.
Time passes and we approach the end of the day with a view of the sun hidden behind a cluster of clouds above the Ashokan waters. It sinks even lower and we see a beautiful view of clouds lit up by the last few moments of daylight. And finally, the clouds give up their beautiful colors and dusk begins to arrive with the sky losing its color and the ground becoming dark. Night is just a few moments away.
Our photographers have given us a panoramic view of morning and evening in the Catskills. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the spring.
David Finn
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