Anatomy of a Composition - Portal
When we move through a time period or an event, we can imagine that we have stepped through a portal. We most often see this device scripted into fantasy and science fiction and the transition or journey is usually filled with trepidation yet it is a central moment in the plot of the story.
But, our lives aren’t stories of fiction. Our lives are much less punctuated and scripted. Our lives unfold in such a way that we don’t often have the chance to “brace” ourselves, or to gather the courage from friends and confederates who might help us through that next gate.
It seems that only when we are on the other side, the other side of fear, of anxiety, of grief, that we can actually look back at the transformative moment, and see it for what it is worth. Strangely enough this old gate showed up this summer, and just like the portal it was meant to be, it didn’t recognize it for what it was. But clearly it marks a change, it marked a transition; some things must be left behind.
Leaving people behind is the hardest of all. Something has manifestly shifted. Where there was allure and vulnerability, now you find a void; compassion and companionship, reduced to a cold, callous confusion. The doubled irony is we begin to question the whole process; why did they show up to begin with, what was the intent, why didn’t I see this coming? There was that second wind that exhausted itself so quickly, why did we lean into it with so much hope?
A final trip to a place that once held so much promise. At a point it seemed these views would last forever, that watching the changing season would be the purest and fairest thing to share. Those naive ideas were easily crushed by misdirected honesty and misplaced truths. This mesa and these views will be bookends to a tumultuous period of my life. A period I wasn’t certain of when it began, but one that needed a portal to finally end.
July, 2020 - As always, thank you for joining me on this adventure.
For more thoughts on some of these images, head over to www.wordpress.com/alma175w
Anatomy of a Composition - Portal - ISO 100 • F/9 • 1/25 sec. - Sony a7riii - Sony FE 16-35GM
Single image, shoot at 16mm. Final edits made in Lightroom.