The Secret Tonic of Wildness
"Nature is a symbol of spirit" (Emerson, 1849)
The Great Outdoors beckons, to linger there and exist within nature, away from the ubiquitous luxuries I take for granted as everyday essentials, and the thrall of electrically charged distraction. Another world is just outside: to realise, document and become one with.
“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” (Thoreau, 1854)
Throughout Walden, (Henry Thoreau's 1854 introspective book about the 2 years, 2 months and 2 days he spent in Walden Woods) Thoreau relates to nature and life in many ways which I too can relate to. The preciousness of time is all too real. I want to live so that I will not die, discovering I had not lived. Like Thoreau, I want to suck out the marrow of life, be lake-side and revel in its sparkling waters, gathering these special moments as I see them and my camera records.
Like the members of the shamanistic network Yggdrasil, I feel it is important to connect to one’s own soil, own landscape, own climate, light and darkness, the lands own animals and plant-life.
To be under the sky, with nothing between me and the elements, discreet, visiting a new world of perspectives: finding and recording natures secrets and the play of light as it dances on the landscape.
The role of Nature in our lives, for those not paying attention, can be underwhelming. Although we know that we need trees to produce oxygen, soil to grow our crops, grass to feed our cattle, the suns light and the rains water to allow for the most basic of lives for our species: so often, they are taken for granted. The sun will rise, the rain will fall, the crops will grow.
I would like to shine a light on the beauty of Nature, our most underrated kin, the life in the wilderness, in all of her mysterious wonder. In sympathy with Nature's gentle mysterious grace, I want to show her as I see her; in an enigmatic, peaceful and uplifting way. Just as I find new attractions in unexpected places, I want my images to take a moment to fathom, so I like the beguiling way of the abstract, like a puzzle to be understood.
Imagining beyond what can be directly seen with the eye and looking through the viewfinder of the camera, I vary the technical settings until the camera produces an aesthetic that I like. Playful photography is a meditation: exploration allows for surprise encounters, whereas waiting and patience brings about changes in light, weather and passers-by, large or small.
‘Twixt that which is and is not seems dissolved,
As if the mental eye gain’d power to gaze
Beyond the limits of the existing world.
Such hours of shadowy dreams I better love
Than all the gross realities of life.”
(Scott, 1828)