#dewensel

In the counties at the limit of Chicago's suburban sprawl is an edge marking the transition from a concentrated urban/suburban landscape to an agrarian landscape. Along this edge, ghost houses and keepsake Dodges cohabitate with cooling towers and wind turbines. Downstate rural themes are woven into the landscape despite close proximity to Chicago's sprawl.

There is disquiet in everything. I went looking for the dark in gardens and in the meadow and found, with a little coaxing, the uneasiness everywhere. 

Compass Plant from the Dark Garden Series

The Dark Inside

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/locations/north-america/back-to-b-and-w.html#.U9A_vIBdUqg

It is a photograph made in Glen Coe in the highlands of Scotland. What it is about is the question of how we should be asked to think about natural landscape photography. Close inspection of the middle third reveals rocks jutting through carpets of grass and furze cut by running streams fed by recent (perpetual?) rainfall. That must mean that the dark of the lower third is a loch and the white at the top is a mist or low hanging clouds. So the picture is of a loch in a glen on a misty/cloudy day. Maybe the picture is about how we see landscapes and why we find certain landscapes recognizable and appealing and others appealing and provocative? 

Glen Coe Highlands Scotland

A serendipitous decision to follow a single lane track off of the A82 led me down Glen Etive and gave me a day of shooting I'll never forget. While the vistas were stunning, my best finds were "small" shots overlooked at first sight. The foam from falls on the River Etive formed endless patterns and swirls in a calm section of the stream before being whisked over another drop.