Figure 1 – Winter 2015, Photominimalism. Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Even more than sand and seaweed snow provides the ultimate environment for photominimalism.  It is all about contrast, just short of pure black and pure white – a binary image.  Figure 1 shows one of my favorite subjects in this medium, a pure white, cold, and windy landscape broken only by some dried and intriguing plant forms.  These are the merest remnants of last summer and thus emphasize the sterile lifelessness of winter contrasted with the abundant life of spring and summer.  It provides a promise.

And what I have tried to accomplish here is to create the sense that the light is on the verge of overwhelming the scene and the image.  I take this from the book of J. M. W Turner (1775-1851).  Turner was referred to as “the painter of light,” and through his career the light slowly seized control and methodically overwhelmed the subject. We move now towards the vernal equinox towards the ascendance of the light.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 400, Aperture-Priority AE mode, 1/500th sec at f/16.0, with +1 exposure compensation. Cold toned black and white image.