The Meaning of Place Through the Narrows | The Beech Grove

Through the Narrows: Meditations on an Adirondack River

In the summer of 2016 I returned to black-and-white film, using a Rolleiflex medium format camera to explore concepts about the memory and meaning of place. The Oswegatchie River in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York provides a perfect setting, where I photograph directly from my kayak or nearby shorelines. The resulting visual meditations challenge us to observe the simple gifts of a natural environment and to preserve those gifts for future generations.

The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y., exhibited Through the Narrows in 2018. The project traveled to the New York Hall of Science, Queens, N.Y., in 2019. With gratitude to Sara Lee Schupf.

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The Beech Grove

Lancasterhistory.org in Lancaster, Pa., is home to an exceptional arboretum, featuring a grove of ornamental European beech trees. Since 2016, I have been exploring the beech grove photographically with my Rolleiflex TLR to learn more about the trees in different seasons. Images of the copper, tri-color, fern-leaved, weeping, and other beeches encourage our understanding of the mysteries of nature, the trees’ perseverance, the beauty we can foster within our city, and the importance of passing these lessons on.

The Beech Grove was exhibited at Lancasterhistory.org in 2018. Special thanks to Thomas Hills Cook.