Recently I was in Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks. It is a magical and beautiful place. This is my favorite photograph of the trip, taken near Rincon on the western end of the island. Click it for a larger rendition.
You might wonder how this image could be a favorite — it is so empty — just sea, the blue sky with a few distant clouds, some sand and the shadow of a tree.
And I am in fact a little at a loss for words, too, why it affects me as it does. Despite it’s “emptiness” it generates all kinds of feelings for me, including freedom and a sense of loss, like a good Japanese sumi painting where empty spaces appear to be fog drifting through the mountains and the mind’s eye fills in these blanks with its own “landscapes” and projections. The viewer participates in the painting and cannot separate a personal response from the created image.
Just so, this image is almost an empty page, this sea in front of me, with only the barest script — a line of foam calling up Antonio Machado’s poem.
It has nothing to do with any subject, and yet is totally subjective.
It asks only, “What will you create of me?” And “Where will you go?” And “What do you see?”
But it also requires no answer, no answer at all.
Which is, of course, all the more inviting.
Link to blog posting.
Link to Oestreich Associates website.
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Beautiful and thoughtful; thank you for sharing!
You are very welcome, Patty. Thanks for stopping by.