I truly believe that a lot of the folks who post to this thread, and I'll include myself in the group, enjoy the solitude and the silence of those rocky, lonesome places, and in fact find solace and comfort there.
Many years ago I spent a summer climbing in the Cordillera Huayhuash in Peru. One evening, on the glacier below the west face of Yerupaja, I sat on the ice outside the tent and looked up at the sky. It was long after sunset and there was a faint glow there. It took me a minute to realize that this was the light from stars that could not be seen individually, and the silence was so profound as to be indescribable.
It was quite comforting, actually, to not be burdened with the trappings of our mechanized society, and to just be. Perhaps we are seeking and finding a similar experience that we attempt to portray in our photographs of these lonesome places.
--P
Bookmarks