Feathered Water, Pastel Leaves

Near Montezuma, Costa Rica (Artist Statement)

Feathered Water, Pastel Leaves: Near Montezuma, Costa Rica (2013) - Fine art photograph of pastel water reflections and swirling leaves, blurred with movement to look like an impressionist painting

I see a flurry of nature in this photograph: rings of stars spinning in a summer sky, restive evening breezes, mountain trees bent by weather; tides, seasons, youth – the delicate and complex lattices of life. I love it when a photograph reminds me of things that it isn't: it feels as though I've found a hidden door opening to an extraordinary place. Children dream of finding secret universes hidden in closets – I dream of finding shapes from the sky circling in the eddies of a lazy mountain river.

I could see dark shapes in this pool, twisting and stretching like tendrils of smoke as I made long exposures in the last of the quick tropical daylight. The surface was sublime: reflecting a pastel sky, dotted with moving leaves, concealing folds of dusky and dangerous water. I like this exposure best, but I made many that reminded me of paintings, and some that reminded me of much darker art.

As happens when I'm in the world making photographs, this image takes a moment to sink into my mind, like a dry cloth into dishwater. In time, the conflicting layers separate and I begin to see the motion, the glimmering details, and the rich systems of life inside.

— Feathered Water, Pastel Leaves: Near Montezuma, Costa Rica (2013)

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