Dramatic sky
Lush greenery
Serene water
The aesthetic experience of the landscape is a complex phenomenon that involves both perception and valuation.
“Beauty is not merely a property of things, but a relation between things and our souls.” – Max Scheler
Crown glass
Flint glass
Achromatic doublet
This early-spring image was captured with a classic single element lens, convex on one side and concave on the other. Invented in 1804 by William Hyde Wollaston as a lens for eyeglasses, he adapted it as a camera obscura lens in 1812. Later the design was used by Niépce and Daguerre in their early photographic cameras.
“I have captured the light and arrested its flight. The sun itself shall draw my pictures.” – Louis Daguerre
Elements of
A lived experience
Of the world
As a primal element, water is a substance that precedes and yet is essential to our being.
“The world is not a collection of things, but a unity of horizons.” – Alphonso Lingis
Ocean waves
Churn of foam
Wet sand
Moving beyond the notion of a static world.
“There is no becoming which is not a becoming of something, and this something is the nexus, the actual entity.” – Alfred North Whitehead
Sand drift
Dune grass
Physics interaction
Jockey’s Ridge State Park includes the tallest active sand dune system in the eastern United States.
“The senses are the beginning of knowledge. For the soul knows nothing naturally except through the senses.” – Thomas Aquinas
Tall grass marsh
Inlet trees
At sunset
The image can be seen as a representation of our own consciousness, as a metaphor for the thoughts and experiences that fill our minds.
“I like to think of the universe as a giant joke.” – Richard Brautigan
Cerulean sky
Tall grass water’s edge
Interpretation canvas
The interplay of light and shadow across the scene further underscores the subjective nature of our experience.
“The object is nothing but the appearance of the subject.” – Benedetto Croce
Processual reality
Dynamic patterns
Vibrant tapestry
The culmination of countless processes of geological transformation are revealed in relentless wind and water sculpting.
“The ultimate notion in terms of which experience is to be interpreted is that of process.” – Alfred North Whitehead
Barrier spit
Natural shoaling
Brackish marsh
Water levels shift with the wind, direction and intensity are major forces affecting the water levels of Currituck Sound, as opposed to the lunar tides.
“This is a beautiful place to watch the sunset over the water with a nice area to sit and take in the view.” – Andrew Ruetz
Stark pine
Study in absence
Haunting echo
The sunset is not a window onto the world, but a screen, a surface upon which our own desires and anxieties are projected.
“The disappearance of the real is not the end, but the beginning… It is the opening onto a new kind of experience, an experience of the virtual, of the simulacral.” – Jean Baudrillard