all pictures ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3
In order to understand my current landscape and Adirondack picturing M.O., allow me to mention a few items.
item 1: The Adirondack PARK / region. The Adirondack PARK is defined geographically by the Blue Line. A line drawn - yes, drawn with blue ink - on a NY State map circa 1892. Within the boundaries of that line is an area that is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined. Also within that area there are 102 towns and villages with a year round population of 130,000 residents.
item 2: how item 1 has influenced, in particular, my Adirondack picture making. CAVEAT all of my picture making is primarily influenced by the manner in which I see (literally) the world. I refer to that as my eye and sensibilities (ME&S) (not learned but intuitive). My intuitive (preternatural?) ME&S determines my picture making vision but my brain, influenced by item 1, determines my picture making intent.
My Adirondack picture making intent is to make pictures which convey a sense of place. While most Adirondack picture makers concentrate, to the exclusion of all else, their picturing on the Adirondack natural world, that world is but a part of what makes the Adirondack PARK an interesting place - one might even say an important place in today's world.
Why important? Simply because the Adirondack PARK is a place where, by intent and design, humankind and the natural world co-exist in a harmonious relationship. The intent in the PARK's creation (1892) was to protect the natural environment within the Blue Line. The design of that intent was the so-called FOREVER WILD Amendment added to the NYS Constitution which decreed that all of the public lands* within the Blue Line would be protected as forever wild ... at the time, a very progressive visionary experiment which has proven to be very successful.
All of the above so stated, my Adirondack picturing intent is not to depict the Adirondack PARK as a romanticized virgin landscape free from humankind's existence. Rather it is to depict the Adirondack PARK as it is .... a place where humnankind co-exists with, protects and preserves the natural world in a relationship which benificial to both.