Travel, Photograph, Experience
Notes on a journey
The Search for Sky Rock
I like this blog post by Hank Cristensen, kind of a personal account of finding a “secret Native American petroglyph.” Plus, the picture of the petroglyph itself is quite lovely, taken at dawn somewhere in the Owens Valley.
This is just the kind of thing I like to throw into my writing. In fact, my piece on searching for the “False Kiva” archeological site at Canyonlands (it’s in, Photographing Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks) is done in the same style. That chapter of fairly personal travel-photo writing was fairly long and I like how it came out even now.
But this blog post by Hank Cristensen is detailed and personal in it’s own way with lots of insight… the right style for that moment — and a photo that takes the travel experience to a deeper place.
The image makes that purple, varnished petroglyph the foreground — and this complex foreground choice totally dominates the image — a big compositional choice. The image lines up the Native design and boulder with a warm splash of the distant mountains, lit with the dawning. A nice piece of work (be sure to see it full size).
… an Update
Hank’s post caught my eye because of the work I’m doing now (working title, Road Trip into the Sacred Southwest). It will be my first piece of writing that tries to fully wed a personal, travel writing style with photography. It’s a tricky style for a full length travel-oriented book.
My book concept is still a bit unmanifest. But the book is starting to shape itself into a thoughtful puzzle of chapter ideas that mix culture, image and the personal moment. Stylistically it will probably be in the road trip genre but with a patchwork plot structure. The reason: because any personal narrative that includes the Native voices and arts of the Arizona/New Mexico should be written to reflect the varied cultural experiences. (Yes, my eyes are bigger than my stomach with this writing idea.)
My point, any photo blog piece I come across that explores that side of the writing/photo arena is of interest. So check out Hank’s piece, it’s worth it:
Source: The Search for Sky Rock
