As evidenced by a number of my earlier posts, I am fascinated by paths and roads. They make beautiful pictures in composition and metaphor. I took this photo on the family friend’s property in Brevard, North Carolina, where we vacation each year. This road leads up to the cabin where my parents have stayed for nearly a decade now, and I cannot fathom how many times I’ve walked it. Yet, this was the first time I thought to take a photograph.
The early January morning was cool, and the fog was thick in the fields that sit just above the lower cabin. For the first time, Anna, the kids, and I stayed there, while my parents, sister, and Brynn stayed in the upper cabin. I was afraid that the distance would cause us to lose a little something in the vacation, but all in all it was one of the best vacations we ever had in North Carolina or otherwise.
Large rhododendrons canopy the road that is lined with oaks, and maples, and even an errant chestnut. Large hemlocks and black pines are scattered just off the road, a few of which have become diseased in the last few years, their hulking trunks covered in woodear mushrooms that portend their eminent downfall.
For a still life, the photograph has substantial motion. In a sense, you are drawn up the path into the fog and unknown, and this is, perhaps, why photographs of roads and paths are so interesting to me. They draw you along, involuntarily, and create a sweeping motion in your mind, or your spirit, where none physically exists.
The fact that the fog fades into gray at the end of the path makes the motion almost ethereal. Although I have been drawn lately more to including figures, whether dog or human, in my photographs, I feel like this one works just right the way it is. The path beckons, and I cannot wait for the next time I am able to heed its call.
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ST. AMAND PHOTOGRAPHY 