Brett Curry Apple Valley, California

Why doI like this image? A photograph of a tree that is next to an empty road, lit by the light from the golden hour at either dawn or dusk, shot on Kodak film, has certain qualities that are worth mentioning.

I could run through them listing them with bullet points, but I won’t. To do so would create virtual pigeon holes, references that will end up being separated instead of being together as a cohesive collective. To do so would take away the subtlety of their interaction, that each will be vying for my exclusive attention as its barges forward, shouldering the other qualities out of the way.

Of why I like this image is because of its overall impression, not because of individual qualities. I enjoy the sense of nostalgia, the impression of openness, of solitude. I can imagine disappearing into a world where there is only nature, away from the world created by mankind. It’s a welcoming scene, an invitation to explore, relax and enjoy the natural world and it offers a world of escapism.

But this is all a fiction, I know it’s not real. If it was a real wilderness unhindered by man’s derelictions then why is there a road? The romanticism of the open space, made so much more attractive with the golden light, promises more than it will deliver and the nostalgia given by the use of film reminds me of the late 1980s and 90s, a time of when a camera was always in my hands.

In so many ways the image is just a vehicle of impressions, memories and ideals. It encapsulates romanticism, nostalgia and solitude, but it doesn’t contain them. The photograph only contains its subject matter, objects that have been captured either in celluloid or a digital file, it doesn’t contain nostalgia or solitude. Those are qualities that are human, that are subjective reactions to the subject matter, and it is this that makes them the great variables. Everyone will react differently to the image, some will see solitude, others will see emptiness, and it is this varying reaction that points to interpreting the image arbitrarily. It relies on our own memories, impressions and reactions and this is why photography remans infinitely exciting.