Size: 7.5” x 7.5” on 8.5” x 11” Canson Platine Fibre Rage Paper

Signed and stamped with print number in verso.

This little side valley was magnificent. Full of wildflowers and a meandering stream, it was a microcosm of the Sierra, a model of the entire range. I wanted to capture the wildness of this basin. The way it felt both familiar and out of control. I waited as the storm built into itself throwing light and shadow alike. I captured a single frame because as I wound my film forward, the camera broke.

This was the last image I captured on this trip. It’s the first time in 25 years this camera has broken in the field. What do you do when the thing you define yourself as, breaks? I was crushed, and disheartened. Even being in such a remarkable little valley, buried in a remote basin, all I could think of were the images I wouldn’t be capturing. Passion has two edges and can cut deep when denied. But It’s a reminder that life happens for us, not to us. So I packed my beloved camera away in my backpack and spent the next week cultivating a different kind of connection to the Sierra. I watched, and thought, and wandered. I wrote and contemplated my place in this world. Life is not always kind, but it sure is beautiful. That’s the way it goes.

Technical Info: Hasselblad, 50mm. Red #25, Polarizer Ilford Delta 100 BW film, developed in Kodak X-tol 1:1