Autumn atop an enormous kame at Glacial Park in Ringwood, IL, USA. I eluded rain throughout my visit, but was frustrated by colored leaves and prairie plants whipped relentlessly by the wind. I accepted that this scene wouldn’t be frozen in tack-sharp stillness, and questioned why that mattered when sunlight revealed itself for one of that day’s last times.
Once illuminated, these snaking hills were enlivened by the fierce gale, offering themselves as a stage where a glacier’s mighty travel and irregular melt played in whirling, bowing, swaying ballet. The perpetual dance of prairie plants and trees spoke history, and the wind directed them to honor the unpredictable winding set down millennia past.
The hint of motion captured here is a breath between steps of that dance – a blink, a swallow, a falling strand of hair. It is some imperceivable gesture, and it expresses more than the stillness I craved ever could.
Minolta Maxxum 7
Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8
Kodak Portra – ISO 160