Photography is a unique tool as it is an attempt of communicating and reducing our unique existential experiences in the hope that it will produce a similar phenomenological response in another viewer. Regardless of photographic proficiency almost everyone in the first world "takes pictures" with the intention of capturing a slice of time with regard to a place, person or object that they wish to remember or share. The very process betrays our finite status. What is the significance of a photographer capturing the light illuminating a landscape? The shutter can trip for 1/60th of a second. And yet the ancient terra firma may have been visited by numerous generations that have each witnessed a different state in a chain of flux that predates the existence of man. It has been argued that each person’s perception of the landscape (or any thing else) will be colored and controlled by their operating meta-narrative but to question the story does not excuse us from participation.

Photography is creation. Creation is communication. Communication is participation.

I am inspired by photographers like Art Wolfe, Galen Rowell and recently Marc Adamus who have the uncanny ability to communicate the wonder and value of wilderness. Please don’t misunderstand, I love their photography but more so it is what they are pointing to that is the real marvel and mystery.

I am driven by a deep suspicion that the human longing for beauty is sacramental in that it draws us to contemplate a reality beyond sense perception. It is in these moments that I can’t help but believe there is a divine and creative personality responsible for what I am witnessing. I would suggest we entertain the possibility that G-d is revealing a bit of the grand narrative to those engaged in the story. It is in the face of the divine that we need to examine our stewardship of creation, terra, anthropomora and otherwise.