The Town of Love

I get such pleasure in photographing small provincial towns. They have their own feel and vibe. On a weekday, the suburbs are empty and you can feel a sense of peace and solitude. As you stroll along the quiet pavement you meet the older generation who stop to talk and bid you well. It seems on those days that culture is most evident, seeping out of ordinary buildings and ordinary places.

Gardens of Culture

It would seem that most of us find some joy in a garden. Not only do gardens show us what beauty can look like, but they also reveal something of our culture. When I look at the features of a garden: architecture, design, layout, elements of shape and form, and plant selection, I see the fingerprint of either my culture or that of another culture. It would seem that wherever people live, that a garden may result due to mans interaction with nature and his intent to create beauty - and perhaps hope.

A garden really lives only insofar as it is an expression of faith,
the embodiment of a hope and a song of praise.

                    - Russell Page, The Education of a Gardener, 1962

River Paintings

A hike up a stream can yield so much in the way of memorable scenes. Like little paintings scattered about the streambed they decorate the waters and bring life and beauty to all who encounter them. I recently read a book called A Sand County Almanac written by the great American conservationist, Aldo Leopold. Leopold’s words very eloquently describe what we can see on a hike up stream.

"I know a painting so evanescent that it is seldom viewed at all, except by some wandering deer. It is a river who wields the brush, and it is the same river who, before I can bring my friends to view his work, erases it forever from the human view. After that it exists only in my mind's eye". - Aldo Leopold

These black and white photographs show natural landscapes of the upper Te Mata Stream. Having thought about it, I do wonder how natural these places are. What cultural activities of man have influenced natures dynamic system and resulted in anomalies hard to see - the unnatural turn of a leaf, a discordant braid of a stream, the differing orientation of a sand spit, a precarious positioning of a rock, an undercutting of the river bank, or a pile of debris where one would not normally have been. But does it really matter. After all, mankind is a fundamental part of the landscape, created to live and exist within the confines of an ecosystem. Man, like the bee, is also nature. Does the bee think about due care of the environment, or does she just go about her work. What is different about man that he thinks he ought to care for the environment?

The complete portfolio for this work can be see here: River Paintings.