Daniel Eek | Love of a mountain

Some would name it a hill, others maybe a peak, however for me, it’s a mountain or maybe a ridge that rises behind our home. It’s steep, rugged and interspersed with rift valleys with wetlands, the place lavatory myrtle and man-sized grass develop in giant tufts that make it just a little further treacherous and heavy to stroll in. The forest consists principally of pine and birch however has parts of spruce, rowan, maple, beech, aspen, hazel, oak, and possibly a couple of extra. The elms that had been there have sadly been taken by Dutch elm illness, they usually now stand as inflexible monuments to a time passed by.

The mountain has been there as a spot the place we typically go along with the youngsters to get out for some time, to grill some sausages over an open hearth, or typically even to trace a household of moose. We’ve had that mountain within the background for over 25 years, however it has all the time been within the background. Then, just a little greater than six years in the past, my life began to vary. I had been in a troublesome scenario at work for a while. Images grew to become a part of the coping course of, and slowly, a common curiosity in pictures shifted to focus increasingly on nature.

When catastrophe struck, and the scenario at my office escalated far past affordable limits, I all of the sudden discovered myself in a scenario the place, from in the future to the following, I had day-after-day to myself. The twister round me had stopped, however inside me, it was fixed night time, and the emotional storm did all the things to tear me aside. When you listened intently, you might in all probability hear the sound of tears, tears falling to the bottom, but additionally steps steps heading in the direction of the forest on the mountain. The mountain grew to become my refuge, and the timber of the forest my new associates.

Some days, I left the home at first mild and did not come again till it was getting darkish. The images I took had been tentative makes an attempt to seek out which means in my very own hopelessness. However the lengthy walks had been in all probability what actually introduced some order to my overheated mind. Within the forest, the impressions had been calm, and wherever I turned, there was all the time one thing that made me smile inside. A blade of grass that nodded encouragingly, a department that waved fortunately…

The twister round me had stopped, however inside me, it was fixed night time, and the emotional storm did all the things to tear me aside. When you listened intently, you might in all probability hear the sound of tears, tears falling to the bottom, but additionally steps steps heading in the direction of the forest on the mountain.

There’s nothing particular about this explicit space, however for me, it’s particular. That is just about the one place I {photograph}. For me, the on a regular basis is particular, and the place I go to time and again is what conjures up me and makes me really feel that “one thing” that makes an image.

For me, there isn’t a want to hunt out what I’ve by no means seen or go to locations I’ve by no means been earlier than.

Perhaps you possibly can see the images as an expression of one thing, perhaps they’re simply depictions of what I see and have seen? I personally see emotions and ideas within the photos, which I typically perceive solely afterwards.

No, the appeal, peace and concord are in visiting the identical locations, on the identical mountain, time and again. At all times alone. Perhaps that is not fully true as a result of if I actually give it some thought, there’s a thrill to find what I have not seen earlier than and discovering these little locations or angles of locations I have not actually seen another time, however all the time on the identical mountain. And alone, no, within the forest I’m by no means alone, I’m simply there all on my own.

Perhaps you possibly can see the images as an expression of one thing, perhaps they’re simply depictions of what I see and have seen? I personally see emotions and ideas within the photos, which I typically perceive solely afterwards. Emotions and ideas that solely get sufficient house in that forest, on that mountain. In that forest, the place the mere considered a step, for a tree, takes many years. The place feelings have time to be felt and ideas have time to be thought. I imagine that is what I each search and discover on the mountain. For me, the pursuit of nice pictures and new locations, discovering the spectacular and what at the moment appeals to the plenty, is in stark distinction to all the things I need and want. I’m in search of what’s shut at hand, the on a regular basis, the gradual and quiet, what you possibly can ponder for some time after which look once more to seek out one thing new to ponder.

I keep in mind a turning level in my picture making. A second that made me see mild in a brand new method, to see shapes, colors and textures with fully new eyes and to see my very own feelings each in nature and in my photos. It was a day in November, virtually a 12 months after the twister had so abruptly stopped. To say that I had healed could be a gross exaggeration, however I had began to operate once more, solely in a very new method. I used to be each extra delicate and fewer weak on the similar time. When you have seen the underside, you do not have to fret about what it seems to be like there and that you could get out of there, I assume.

I keep in mind a turning level in my picture making. A second that made me see mild in a brand new method, to see shapes, colors and textures with fully new eyes and to see my very own feelings each in nature and in my photos.

Anyway, it is November, and in these components, it typically means a humid chilly that penetrates the marrow and bones and a sky that not often adjustments greater than between completely different shades of gray. I headed to a small forest lake that I knew existed however the place I had by no means been earlier than. It’s maybe an hour’s stroll via the forest from our home. Once I arrive, there’s a skinny layer of ice on the water, and just a little frost is seen within the grass.

It’s fully quiet and nonetheless, not a breath of wind. All the things is ready, ready for what’s to return. Immediately, the sunshine adjustments, and there are small crystals of snow singing via the air. Small, small flakes, which just about appears like fog. All the things round me turns into smooth like a portray and all of the sudden I realise what I have been in search of. It’s the softness of this mild that I’ve been lacking. It’s this softness that displays who I’m and this softness I want for in my inventive work. The pictures from that day are usually not my finest, however one specifically I can by no means get sufficient of. For another person, there are various issues that ought to have been achieved in another way, however for me that picture will all the time be particular. It jogs my memory of who I’m.

Typically, I replicate on the current and what appears to be the anticipated. Sadly, I feel pictures turns into a mirrored image of the society and tradition round us. It’s travelling throughout our world to see and depict what another person has already seen and depicted. It’s spectacular and quick. It’s short-term and instantaneous.

Typically, I replicate on the current and what appears to be the anticipated. Sadly, I feel pictures turns into a mirrored image of the society and tradition round us.

But artwork is exactly what should be allowed to counterbalance all the things else round, what challenges the seemingly apparent. Expertise via artwork is one thing that speaks to the depths of our being and has the power to counteract these features of us which are harmful and egocentric. I hope that pictures, each as an artwork type and as an curiosity, will likely be that counterbalance, however I feel we have to search ourselves and attempt to perceive what drives us and the way we will consciously select a course that’s optimistic each for us as photographers and for society, the world and the planet.

I each hope and imagine that that is precisely the place we’re heading, however within the meantime, you will see me on my mountain. Trying to find that mild, that second, that factor that makes me soar, that one thing that turns into one other piece of the puzzle of who I’m and why. I hope to seek out extra feelings to share, and perhaps my story may in the future turn into a consolation, a help or a dialog in photos for somebody who wants it as a lot as I do.