02-DEC-2012
Father of Waters, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 2012
After our tour of the Vicksburg battlefield, we returned to our ship moored on the banks of the Mississippi to find the river reflecting the orange afterglow of sunset. I made this image just before reboarding, and used the curving shoreline to symbolize the snakelike flow of the river itself, which bends and twists its way from Vicksburg to the sea. The orange water and sky incongruously bring a mood of peace and silence to a place that once knew the roar of Union Navy gunboats, as they bombarded Vicksburg’s Confederate defenses not far from this spot. It was here on July 4, 1863, that forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant sealed the doom of the Confederacy, allowing Abraham Lincoln to say “The Father of Waters once again goes unvexed to the sea.”
03-DEC-2012
Glen Auburn, Natchez, Mississippi, 2012
This magnificent “French Second Empire” house was built about ten years after the Civil War ended. Just over 100 years ago, this was the home of a family of Jewish settlers, the wholesalers, retailers, traders and suppliers that once made up one third of Natchez’s 150 businesses. Today, the home is privately owned. It boasts 14-foot hand painted ceilings, and two-foot thick brick walls. Its servant’s wing now houses the bedrooms of six children. The huge home dominates a knoll in the heart of the city, and dwarfs it’s neighbors. Because I was on a walking tour, I only had a few moments to make this image. Fortunately, the sun broke through a heavy overcast just as we passed this house, and I was able to make this layered image featuring the rich reds, greens, and blues of the surroundings, all of which herald the ornate architecture of the place. The white picket fence, dappled in shadow, offers a base layer to the image. The autumnal trees create a gate-like opening in the next layer, while the house, and the cloud splashed sky overhead, complete the composition.
03-DEC-2012
Texada, Natchez, Mississippi, 2012
Texada is the earliest brick building in Natchez. It was built while Spain ruled much of the American South – sometime between 1793 and 1805. From 1817-1820, it served as Mississippi’s state capitol building, before the capital moved on to Columbia and Jackson. It is the earliest surviving state capitol building in the United States. I photographed only part of the building, because I wanted to feature the two trees that frame one of the front windows. I cropped the trees to stress the thrust of the branches reaching upwards, as well emphasizing as the coiled roots at their base that seem to lie as much above the ground as beneath it. The image itself speaks of the roots of both a city and a state, and these tree roots anchoring this image serve as an appropriate metaphor.
03-DEC-2012
Vapor trails, Natchez, Mississippi, 2012
I’ve created a frame within a frame composition here to draw the eye towards the tower of Natchez’s Federal style 182-year old First Presbyterian Church. The tower’s weathervane points toward dual vapor trails diagonally sweeping the deep blue sky overhead. The image offers us an incongruous juxtaposition of theology and technology.
03-DEC-2012
A mark of time, Natchez, Mississippi, 2012
When visiting a place rich in history, I look for comparisons between rejuvenation and decay. I found such a comparison while on a walking tour in old Natchez. The exposed red brick of this very old building drew my eye immediately. It emerges through crumbling layers of paint and plaster. I climbed the steps of a neighboring porch and used its Victorian woodwork as a framing device here. The imperfect curves in the decaying plaster and paint strive to echo the perfection of the curves in the porch woodwork. The decaying building, contrasting to the immaculate woodwork, gives us a sense of the mark that time makes on the works of man.
04-DEC-2012
Dawn on the Mississippi, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2012
As an independent traveler, it would have been very difficult for me to make an image such as this from the middle of the Mississippi River. However, since I was a passenger on this touring ship, I am able put the viewer into the center of that river. The key to the image is the fluttering flag, flying from a diagonal flagpole in the back of the ship, identifying the national registry of the vessel itself. Meanwhile, a tug that usually pushes barges along the Mississippi, crosses the river just behind us, lending a sense of scale to the scene. A bridge, carrying traffic across the river, frames that boat. It also guides the eye towards both the flag and the splash of golden sky at the left edge of the frame.
04-DEC-2012
Contrast, Baton Rouge, Lousiana, 2012
Once again, my vantage point on the rear deck of a cruise ship in the middle of the Mississippi River allows me to draw a contrast that otherwise would have been very difficult to make. As we sailed past a replica of a vintage Mississippi paddle wheeler, I noticed white clouds of smoke belching into the morning sky from nearby oil refineries. I waited until our ship carried me into a spot where I could juxtapose the antique smokestacks of the paddle wheeler to the billowing clouds of present day smoke, and made this image. The original paddlewheel boats on the Mississippi were an important part of the American economy in the 19th century. The present-day oil industry along the river has long since supplanted them.
04-DEC-2012
World War II memories, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2012
I made this photograph as our ship sailed past a dry-docked World War II destroyer, the USS Kidd. I abstract it by exposing for the sky, instead of the ship, thereby creating both a silhouette and far more detail in the threatening clouds overhead.The ship becomes a symbol, allowing the viewer to project his or her own imagination on to the image. It rests on a cradle, keeping it high and dry at the end of the year. When the annual snowmelt raises the level of the Mississippi, the ship lifts off its cradle and floats in its mooring. Here a worker handles maintenance on bow of the ship, lending scale and bringing a touch of human values to the scene. On April 11, 1945, a Japanese suicide plane struck the USS Kidd during the battle for Okinawa. Thirty-eight American sailors lost their lives, and fifty-five others were wounded. The ship, now a memorial to those men, is under the supervision of the Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission. My image speaks to the memory of those men, and that war.
04-DEC-2012
Haunted Oaks, Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 2012
Rosedown, a cotton plantation built in 1835, remained in the same family for 120 years. It is surrounded by haunted groves of ancient Southern Live Oaks, which set a mood redolent of the Old South. It was raining as I made the photograph, and a light mist sifted through the hanging Spanish Moss. The flat light produced a wonderful color palette. Among the vines appropriately embracing this tree are “Resurrection Ferns,” which seems to die when dry, and mysteriously spring back to life when wet.
04-DEC-2012
Entering the past, Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 2012
The statue at the base of one of Rosedown’s mighty Oaks seemed to be asking us to move back into time with her. The sculpture beckons to us from the 19th century, while the enormous Southern Live Oak, it’s massive branch echoing the statue’s gesture, has been here even longer.
04-DEC-2012
Cameo, Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 2012
The interior of Rosedown still contains many original items belong to the Turnbull family, which owned the plantation from 1834 to 1954. Time seems to stand still within its walls. This large cameo is mounted on an ornate track. It probably represents the owner’s sister, who once owned some of the land upon which the plantation stands. The ghostly subject seems fixed in time, utterly compatible with the ornate frame, track, and vintage wallpaper.
04-DEC-2012
Silver Service Rosedown Plantation St. Francisville Louisiana.jpg
This house has survived through many eras, never losing touch with its sense of elegance. Queen Victoria took the throne of England just two years after Rosedown was built, and much of the home remains furnished in items acquired during her 64-year reign. The ornate Victorian silver service is displayed here below the hanging crystal prisms of two table lamps. I was drawn to this scene by those prisms, which throw glowing reflections on the gauzy curtain behind it. The repeating diagonals seem to hint at the Art Deco era to come.
