From Verlyn Klinkenborg of The New York Times comes this paragraph today...
Nearly every image of nature I have ever come across misses the sense of intricate confusion underfoot in the woods, the thickets of goldenrod collapsing into each other along the roadsides, the rotting tusks of fallen beeches broken against the western hillside. It almost never makes sense to talk about the purpose of nature. But now — until the snow comes at last — I could easily believe that the purpose of nature is to create edges, if only because every edge, no matter how small, is a new habitation. As purposes go, that could hardly be more different from my own, which is to reduce the number of edges here, so that the big pasture is bounded by four clean lines only, free of interruptions from sumac or knotweed or shattered maple limbs. Left to itself, nature is all interruption.
It is almost as if he is issuing a challenge to the photographer in me. I know what he's talking about though, I've taken those images and trashed them once they were developed because the focused view in the picture captured nothing of the actual image my eyes saw as I clicked the shutter. I was already thinking of some sort of photo project dealing with the woods along the bayou behind my house after visiting FFF this morning and reading his agenda list for the new year. Who knows maybe Fred and Verlyn can inspire something that will lead to a furthering of this stumble toward the next phase of my life.
BTW -- Happy 2007
Source: Edges and Order - New York Times
