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The Poetry of Snow Covered Buildings
February 2004
This month’s selection of photographs is somewhat poetic in the way they portray buildings covered with snow. We think of them as poetic because they have especially sensitive design qualities. Some of them are close to abstractions. All of them, we think, tell us something of what we sense at this time of the year when we feel the wind in our face and look at the unusual scenes created by winter snow.
Our cover image is a particularly lovely photograph of a late afternoon scene. The fading sunlight touches the edge of the snow on the roof of the gazebo, reminding us of a famous philosopher’s description of the sublime. Schopenhauer thought that reflections of the setting sun on the edge of a building are sublime because they hint at the existence of other worlds. Here the fading light in the distant hills adds to the drama of the scene.
In the next two images, we burst into bright sunlight. The sky is pure blue, the snow is clean and white, and the wooden facades of the buildings provide a rich contrast to nature’s elements. In both photographs, the composition is superb—simple, dramatic, poetic. Then we see two beautiful horizontal photographs. One is of a long shed covered with snow, and the simplicity of the image is its strength. The graduating tones on the snow covered roof and in the blue sky give the image a certain elegance. The other photograph is of a red barn with shadows of a nearby tree creating images on the snow and on the side of the barn. Here, too, there is a beautiful blue sky, this time highlighted by a wisp of a cloud.
We turn the page and now we see a house partially hidden by foliage, with a grand sweep of snow in front and shadows of tree trunks creating a striking pattern. And on the opposite page we find still another barn, this time partially protected by a fence, with the dark blue sky above creating a lovely background for the bright snow below. We end with a wonderful detail of a barn with snow highlighting the beams that tie the frames of the door together.
David Finn
David Finn is Founder and Chairman of the Ruder Finn Group, which is proud to sponsor the monthly photography portfolio in this magazine.
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