William Henry Jackson's "Phantom Curve" (late 1800's) and Robert Adams' "Clear Creek Canyon, near Idaho Springs" (ca. 1970). If you click on the Jackson photograph to enlarge it you will be able to see the man standing at the base of (what's left of) the rock formation to the right of the tracks.
I like looking at "Phantom Curve". It reminds me of how I felt when I was on my way back to the lower 48 as John and I traveled on the Alaskan Highway in our Red F-250 Dueley.
ReplyDeleteIt was late September, but the temperatures had already started to drop pretty significantly, and the road was icy, dangerous, and lonely, and I remember thinking we could just slip off that road and never be found in the long expanses of road and wilderness in which we wouldn't see another person or car.
I also remember thinking how strange it was, to be on this man-made structure of a road, (like the railroad in the photograph)in this incredibly wild and unpopulated place.
It made me feel that if our lives did come to an end on that trip that it would be ok. Maybe because it felt so unimaginable to me that humans should exist where we were? It made me feel closer to the possiblity of not existing. But this photograph reminds me of that feeling--of being in awe of the natural landscape, but being frightened by it at the same time.