Eden is a Place: Light 1: Windows 1

My last post reminded me of how much I like to rely on natural light for my photographs.
For the pictures I take indoors, this means light that comes through windows. I have always been
fascinated by the character that windows give to light. Windows are already photographs in
that they frame a specific view and, in a way, they work like photographs because they provide
a level of
protection, some would say a barrier, between the viewer and what is being viewed. Though I'm sure
someone has written extensively on the symbolism of the window in art and literature,
I'd like to think that the experience of seeing and feeling light through a window (either the
stark, bright light that completely contrasts against a wall or a floor, or the diffused, even
undefined light that tempers the colors and shapes of inside life) holds something outside of language,
something that only the experience itself can communicate. This experience is a combination of time,
space, place, and weather. And so I continue to try to capture these moments when I can.

Sometimes I find the image of the window itself enough to convey the moment, but often
I include objects or even people within the moment to give it a place.

The three photographs below represent, at least chronologically, my interest in taking pictures
of window light.

The first photo: "Windows: Easter Homecoming" is really my first picture of this moment
of light. I took it when I got home from my first real independent camping trip to Southern Utah at
the tail end of spring break during my Junior year in High School. The quality isn't that good because
it is a scan of an already beat-up copy but I think it at least communicates the kind of melancholic
nostalgia that I was feeling at the moment.

The second photo: "Windows: Lili's first Winter" was taken while we lived in my Grandmother's apartment.
I took quite a few pictures of this window because of its south-facing position. Lili loved to peer
out from time to time.

The third photo "Windows: Shades of Piscataway" is one that I took a week ago when it was raining and
light was scarce. I thought the contrast between the natural, blue light outside and the artificial,
yellow light of the lamp was a beautiful way to appreciate the difference in quality and color of the
two. And, of course, John is there filling the gap in the window's reflection which suggests how we
as humans are reflected in natural light and not in artificial light (this is the literary critic
in me speaking).

I will probably include some more pictures of this series in later posts but for now I
will leave my "Windows" at these three.