Ansel Adam's Camera Obscura

….an example of future's past...

Ansel Adams’ Camera Obscura

 

 

The camera captured the story

in black and white contrast;

in shadows cast by Aspen

as the sun lowered in the sky.

As silent words spilled

from the framed print,

the walled pueblo of

Canyon de Chelly

spoke of ancestors

and a People long gone.

 

As I viewed this photo,

I heard the wind swirling,

carving color into the sandstone.

I could feel

the wind, rain and water

all captured in black and white.

And, if you looked closely,

you could see old ghosts

roaming in the shadows,

chasing Coyote

while listening to Kokopelli

playing his flute.

 

It’s amazing how a photo

captured a moment in time,

becoming a past

that is also a future;

it becomes timeless.

 

Aztec Warrior/redzone 9.17.18

Author's Note

.....thanks for reading..
the photo is Ansel Adam's Canyon de Chelly (1937)

Reviews

[barleygirl]

Your poem embraces so many of the things I've always loved. I've hiked so many deserts with rock formations like this & we have incredibly detailed shale walls around here too. I love the chosen artist & all the places he commemorated in his photography, which are the very places I hiked so often when I was agile & active! Kokopelli is a favorite since I've been doing rain dances for the last 10 drought years here (we're having a wet one this year, tho!) You combine recognizable details, the sacred natural aspects of living & thriving for me (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[redzone]

I always knew your dancing would create the necessary storms that could water thirsty plants and ground... ;0)

thanks Margie for your comment I am glad this one touched you and that you continue to dance... aaahhh I can hear that flute music echoing off those canyon walls... dance Margie, dance....

[kentuck14]

Old Ansel really knew how to take a photograph. And Red, you captured it well with words.
Thanks for sharing.
Tom

[redzone]

thank you for a wonderful comment kentuck… and he absolutely knew his camera and what it could capture.... and he was a master artist...

[Lydia Shutter]

Photos...you know I take a lot of them...do tell a story. They capture sound, light, and fantasy. We read into them and we create our own stories. Ansel Adams' photography, of course, is very special artwork. There's something about a black and white photo that allows it to last through the ages.....just as I believe your words will, Curt. This is an especially "nice" write. Lydi**

[redzone]

I have read that he used a special film that is no longer made and that this added to the black and whites he took... but he was one of the best in capturing that "moment" just right... he indeed had an artist's eye and his art is indeed timeless...

thank you Lydi, getting a "nice" from is is special, always...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and especially amazing to me is to look at the old black and white photos...i feel there is so much more to imagine and love about those oldies...
just like watching the old black and white movies.
what a trip this poem is...timeless for sure..and making us want to go back in time.

j.

[redzone]

thanks Jacob... you know I would love to visit Canyon de Chelly, see what he saw when he took that photo... to imagine my own thoughts as I walked the canyon below,,, and yes to get caught up in a time past...