“Proud Decay”
I remember the first time I looked through Richard Rothman’s book “Redwood Saw.” I couldn’t understand how someone could see the way he did.
Over a period of five years, Rothman would camp and make images in the redwood forests of Northern California. He called it the most “visually stimulating environment” he’d ever been in. But, at first glance, all I saw was chaos.
I felt something as I viewed his images, but I did not understand them.
Until the foggy day I spent in the Boston Mountains of the Ozark National Forest.
The beauty of fog is it clarifies what you’re looking at. Our eyes are not distracted with everything in the background. We can focus on what is in front of us. And when that happens, shapes and forms reveal themselves. Tableaus are on display.
I wish words could fully convey what I see in this image. Whenever I try to describe it, what comest to mind is a chaise in a sitting room in the French Quarter. There is something decadent about this scene, with the draping vines evoking the Spanish moss I saw all over New Orleans.
One thing I admire about New Orleans is how it is still proud in the midst of it’s decay. Things are a little worse of the wear, and repairs need done and touch ups need attended to, but do not - for one second - disregard it’s strength. It has seen things we never will, and we would be unwise to approach it with our own arrogance.
