Traces: A Book I Need Your Help With...

I am rereading John Berger.  He writes:

Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does. 

A trace. 

I am contemplating publishing a book of images. Perhaps 30 images or so.  In the last four years I have taken more than 100,000 images, and of those made several hundred images. This idea of a book has me looking at the made images again and wondering as to what traces the collection suggests.

I think of this book as a trace, a visible mark that might suggest what I have witnessed through the lens of my camera. A personal geography of sorts, I have passed through.  The marks we leave in many ways tell who we are, perhaps far better than our words.

So I am hoping you might help me.  I am posting several of the images and would appreciate it if you

1. might suggest what traces the images suggest
2. offer any commentary about the set or a particular image.

I hope to use commentary from viewers (with their permission and credit to them) in the work, an idea I am blatantly stealing from Carol Holmes. 

You can post your response on the blog or send it to me directly at maryann.reilly58@gmail.com.

Appreciative.

The Constancy of Waves

Wall Street

To Serve and Protect

Homeless in New York

Salvation

At the Station

Darkness Becomes a Reservoir

Down by the River

The Familiar Falling Away

On Grafton Street

Birds Rising

Coming through the Rye

A Woman Gathering Silence

Want

Ordinary Angels

Zen

American Bus Stop V: Prisons

Dreaming of David Hockney

Intersection

Remembrance

Etta and Butch Go For a Ride

Trees in Reservoir, IV

Soar

Be For Me, Like Rain

Bridge in Fog

Bearings Taken

Surfaced

Gates

House at the End of the Tracks

Calvary

Road Work

What Felled You is Important

Shadow and Light

Endings

Rising

Once at Grand Central

Upper East Side

Out in the Desert

Watching

Leave No Trace

Waning Moon. M.A. Reilly, 9.4.10

On Saturday I went shooting (cameras, of course) with a woman, Kathleen, who had emailed me earlier in the week and asked if we might shoot together.  She had indicated that she had followed work I had posted on my art site and thought we might go out and photograph.  She realized we both live in New Jersey.  We would find out that not only did we live in neighboring towns, but we each worked in Morristown, NJ.  We decided to meet at Monksville Reservoir in Ringwood at 6:30 a.m.   It was still twilight when we arrived, the waning moon the main source of light. Gradually the sun's light edged over the mountain, lighting the trees.  No matter how often I visit Monksville Reservoir, the line of light on the water never fails to amaze me. There we made some images as the sun lit the barren trees at the western end of the reservoir.

Line of Light. Ringwood, NJ. Image by M.A. Reilly. 9.4.10

The water that feeds the reservoir comes from Greenwood Lake and flows through the Long Pond Ironworks State Park, located in West Milford, NJ.  Kathleen made mentioned of a waterfall that cascades into an abandoned mine shaft and we set out to find it.  She learned of the waterfalls from some teenagers she had met at a local pool that summer.  They raved about diving from the top of the rocks into the mine shaft.

Reflection. 9.4.10

I have visited Long Pond many times in the last few years and have made many images, however I had not visited the falls before.  As we trekked through woods trying to follow paths we kept finding ones that dead-ended at rocks. Eventually we began to hear water and followed the sound. The woods here are lovely, still green with summer and early morning light. The narrow paths are reddened by the decay of pine needles.  We walked alongside the stream that feeds the Monksville Reservoir and then climbed higher to the rocks that frame the falls. 

As we got closer to the falls, the presence of others became more and more evident.  At first, it was the occasional wrapper or broken glass.  By the time we made it to the hill and rocks that frame the top of the falls, human "traces" abounded. Underwear, socks, t-shirts, beer bottles, beer cans, Gatorade bottles, paper plates, plastic bags, were littered across the ground and in the water. Trees had been chopped and cans that might have been heated in a campfire left discarded on the ground.  Broken glass crunched underfoot. Two garbage bags had been left and were partially filled.

Neither Kathleen nor I could speak. Somehow, shooting the falls seemed misplaced given the severity of the littering and utter disregard for nature.  I stood there for awhile just taking it in and then began to document, thinking about the Leave No Trace Center.

Leave  No Trace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that humans do not destroy the earth.  The Center accepts nominations of "hot spots" that need to reclaimed.  

According to the website, The Center intends to do the following:

1. Accept nominations from individuals, groups, non-profits, partners, members and governmental agencies for areas – Leave No Trace Hot Spots – that have recreation-related impacts that could be successfully mitigated through effective Leave No Trace programming.
2. Nominations will be accepted on a quarterly basis, with one Hot Spot being chosen per quarter.
3. For chosen Hot Spots, the Center will work with the nominator to determine the scope of the impact, the relevant partners for collaboration, and effective and creative solutions for reducing the impacts occurring in the area.
4. Chosen Hot Spots will receive some or all of the following: expert consultation on solutions and program implementation, training, educational materials, visits from the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers, creation of locally-tailored programs to meet site-specific needs, volunteer support and overall assistance in putting the Leave No Trace program into action.



Long Pond State Park, 9.4.10.

I nominated the Long Pond State Park as a hot spot on 9.6.10.  I'll let you know what I hear.  In the mean time, anyone want to volunteer to go clean up some woods and streams?