Archive for the ‘desert solitaire’ Tag
Painted Desert– B&W Image by kenne
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives
as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild,
the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of
civilization itself.”
― from Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey,
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Solitaire Poppy Shadows — Image by kenne
“Where’s the Coke machine?”
“Sorry lady, we have no Coke machine out here.
Would you like a drink of water?” (She’s not sure.)
“Say ranger, that’s a godawful road you got in here,
when the hell they going to pave it?” (They gather around, listening.)
“The day before I leave.” (I say it with a smile; they laugh.)
“Well how the hell do we get out of here?”
“You just got here, sir.”
“I know but how do we get out?”
“Same way you came in. It’s a dead-end road.”
“So we see the same scenery twice?”
“It looks better going out.”
“On ranger, do you live in that little housetrailer down there?”
“Yes madam, part of the time. Mostly I live out of it.”
“Are you married?”
“Not seriously.”
“You must get awfully lonesome way out here.”
“No, I have good company.”
“Your wife?”
“No, myself.” (They laugh; they all think I’m kidding.”
“Well what do you do for amusement?”
“Talk to the tourists.” (General laughter.)
— Edward Abbey, from Desert Solitaire
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Desert Path — Image by kenne
“Water, water, water….
There is no shortage
of water in the desert
but exactly the right amount ,
a perfect ratio of water to rock,
water to sand,
insuring that wide free open,
generous spacing among plants and animals,
homes and towns and cities,
which makes the arid West
so different from any other part of the nation.
There is no lack of water here
unless you try to establish a city
where no city should be.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
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Desert Solitude — Image by kenne
Edward Abbey wrote in his 1968 book, Desert Solitaire —
“. . . we need nature to “startle the senses and surprise
the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us
into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful—
that which is full of wonder.”
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Sweetwater Wetlands Park — Images by kenne
Tucson’s Sweetwater Wetlands is an artificial wetlands near the usually dry Santa Cruz river. The area is a part of a waste-water reclamation project developed in 1996. The park provides an urban wildlife habitat and outdoor classroom — a wildlife photographer’s paradise.
kenne
“Water, water, water….There is no shortage of water
in the desert but exactly the right amount ,
a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand,
insuring that wide free open,
generous spacing among plants and animals,
homes and towns and cities,
which makes the arid West so different
from any other part of the nation.
There is no lack of water here unless you try to
establish a city where no city should be.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
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Edward Abbey begins his 1968 book, Desert Solitaire – A Season In The Wilderness with the sentence;
“This is the most beautiful place on earth.”
He continues:
“There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary.
A houseboat in Kashmir,
a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn,
a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains,
a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country,
a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even,
possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender,
the velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome —
there’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment.”
Yes, we all have that place, that place that inspires thoughts and feelings that conjure those magical experiences. For Abbey, it’s Moab, Utah, which is where he was a seasonal park ranger in the Arches National Monument and the subject of his book. But, Desert Solitaire is more than about Moab, it’s about the desert.
In recording his impressions of the desert, he tells the reader that he endeavored to be accurate,
“. . . since I believe that there is a kind of poetry, even a kind of truth, in simple fact.”
With that position, Abbey went on to convey what he called a “modest pretension” that the desert is a vast and complex world, making it very difficult for language to gather the simple facts when the facts are infinite. Since he could not get the desert into a book, he tried something different,
“. . . I tried to create a world of words in which the desert figures more as a medium than as material. Not imitation but evocation has been the goal.”
I share his goal in my photography, not to provide a copy of the original, but to create anew through the power of the observer’s imagination. It is hoped that you may find the images of my most beautiful place on earth, the Sonoran desert, pleasing to the eye. However, as Abbey cautioned, do not travel to the desert and expect to see what I have captured —
“When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you’ll see something, maybe.”
kenne
Images by kenne
“The desert, when the sun comes up…I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.”
― Tom Hanks
- The Most Beautiful Place on Earth (twinrockstradingpost.wordpress.com)
32.270209-110.860703
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The Aspen Loop trail starts and ends in Marshall Gulch on Mount Lemmon. Part of this trail contains recovering forest from the Aspen Wildfire, which burned parts of Mount Lemmon ten years ago.
Before the fire, much of Mount Lemmon was a thick forest.
After the fire, aspen and New Mexico locust were quick to take over the forest.
When removing a fallen pine from the trail, one creative volunteer cut a seat for resting in the shade.
As the burned forest ages, each year the tall pines succumb to nature.
Volunteers are busy removing trail obstructions, which will include trees like this one
Hiking up the Aspen Trail.
Plenty of room to shelter.
Now ten years out, the slow-growing pines are becoming more established.
The signs of recovery are all around.
Images by kenne
“In climbing a mountain,
if we persevere, we reach the summit;
we get, you might say, to the point.
Once on the mountaintop
there is nothing to do but come down again. . .
Descending the mountain
we enter by degrees into a friendlier,
more comfortable, more human environment —
forest, rushing streams, sunny meadows —
and soon hear the cowbells,
see the villages and the roads,
all that is familiar and reassuring.”
— Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season In The Wilderness
32.270209-110.860703
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“This is the most beautiful place on earth.”
He continues:
“There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary.
A houseboat in Kashmir,
a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn,
a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains,
a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country,
a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even,
possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender,
the velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome —
there’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment.”
Yes, we all have that place, that place that inspires thoughts and feelings that conjure those magical experiences. For Abbey, it’s Moab, Utah, which is where he was a seasonal park ranger in the Arches National Monument and the subject of his book. But, Desert Solitaire is more than about Moab, it’s about the desert.
In recording his impressions of the desert, he tells the reader that he endeavored to be accurate,
“. . . since I believe that there is a kind of poetry, even a kind of truth, in simple fact.”
With that position, Abbey went on to convey what he called a “modest pretension” that the desert is a vast and complex world, making it very difficult for language to gather the simple facts when the facts are infinite. Since he could not get the desert into a book, he tried something different,
“. . . I tried to create a world of words in which the desert figures more as a medium than as material. Not imitation but evocation has been the goal.”
I share his goal in my photography, not to provide a copy of the original, but to create anew through the power of the observer’s imagination. It is hoped that you may find the images of my most beautiful place on earth, the Sonoran desert, pleasing to the eye. However, as Abbey cautioned, do not travel to the desert and expect to see what I have captured —
“When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you’ll see something, maybe.”
kenne
Images by kenne
“The desert, when the sun comes up…I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.”
― Tom Hanks
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