EtherScapes
The Magical Space Between Reality And Imagination
The Magical Space Between Reality And Imagination
To be a landscape shooter in the purest sense, is to retain an enormous amount of patience, the discipline for the proper composition within the frame... and a warm pair of boots. The latter, probably the most important. For years I've roamed the prairies and mountains of our American West in search of the perfect landscape. I would first find the right perch, sometimes on a piece of tufted sod broken loose by a John Deere blade, other times it was on the edge of a crested butte high above a meandering river on its journey to the sea. The scenario was always to wait for every element in the frame to reach "the moment." That ultimate nirvana when clouds, wind, sunlit peaks and the flow of that river passing through the scene, were at their peak before I could trip the shutter and breathe again. The voice of Ansel ringing in my ear. "Wait, Mark. Wait for the light." Then, this past summer I had an epiphany.
During all of those hours I stood cramped, chilled and ultimately convinced that I was going to get the perfect shot this time if everything would just line up exactly, I hadn't taken notice that the landscape was actually moving and changing right before my eyes. The wind was blowing through the trees, the shadows were coming and going and the world continued to revolve. I was just not opening my minds eye to the obvious. Landscapes move... they don't stand still.
EtherScapes is the result of that moment of clarity. By allowing light, shadow and motion to combine and create these subtle flowing palettes, it finally dawned on me that this was what I had been searching for all those years, I just didn't know it at the time. Each image is a unique and separate experience not able to be repeated. For me, the relationship I have always had with the landscape has been altered and improved upon. Oh, there will always be room in my portfolio for the grand expanse of land and sky in the traditional landscape. It's just for now, the exuberance of discovery has given me the chance to see it all through eyes wide open.
I think I'll keep that old pair of warm boots close by just in case.
