A lady stands upon the henge at Avebury in the snow, looking off into the distance where a man walks away. It’s impossible not to see the story there. She’s watching him leave, across a snowy, barren landscape, and it’s the hardest walk the man has ever undertaken. He doesn’t want to go, she doesn’t want him to. She feels abandoned but so does he. He has no clue where he’s going. He just knows it’s time, and that she won’t come after him.
Snow at Avebury, for someone just visiting that was a miracle unto itself. I was like a child at Christmas when just after daylight I noticed the white outside. I was already on the henge when my guide met me there.
She had pointed out that my photos of ancient sites in Britain were better with people in them. It gave scale to what I was capturing.
She was right. But it’s more than that.
Landscapes are beautiful, and when captured right, can convey emotion and personality as well as a portrait. But a landscape with people tells a story. It can be literal, Bruegel comes to mind for that. I always loved Breugel.
The reality is, these two didn’t even know each other. She may not have even noticed the man at that moment, and he certainly didn’t see her. It’s in our imagination that stories are written. Sometimes what we see that we’re so certain of, turns out to be dream.
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