Muse

The winter and its movement into the stormy beginning of spring has a strong effect on peoples’ emotions, including myself. I often find myself in a dark state of mind when the weather is cold and dark, or there is storm coming. With this series of images, I want to capture the dark feeling that can come over people when they are surrounded by the cold weather of winter and are faced with the great expanse of storm clouds on the horizon. I look at the expanse of the sublime landscape, that may be awe-inspiring at first, but then a darker sense comes into it. I enjoy the idea that the presence of a subject, be it a human or something else, can change the feeling of a landscape. I use this to my advantage by sometimes focusing on a subject that will make a scene take on a much darker tone. It may be the simple presence of a subject in the space that changes the narrative of the image. Or, it may be the action that they do which changes the mood of the space all together.

When the weather was stormy with rain or snow, I went out and focused on areas where the dark clouds could fill the scene. I felt the dark clouds best gave the sense of a brooding darkness. These spots often included either a small presence of man-made objects, or none at all. Nature itself can be very terrifying, so I wanted to keep the strong presence of humans to a minimum. Once I found the spot to shoot, I chose to either include or not include a human figure, depending on the scene. I tried to keep figures much smaller in the scene compared to the expanse of the landscape. Whenever I’m in the midst of a storm, I often feel like I am a small part of a larger picture. By having figures smaller, I captured the terrifying aspect of the sublime landscape and I captured the feeling that I sometimes feel when faced with this type of weather.