Musings
Musing April 2009
ODIN STONE: Plates 8 – 11
Plate 8: Propeller, St. Margaret’s Hope, Orkney, 2007
This propeller stuck me as blindingly bright, perhaps because I had lost my sunglasses the night before. I had, however, previously photographed at this scene but this day it seemed bigger and brighter than ever before. As I was making the image with the propeller and empty bench my friend, Barbara Boyce, asked if I wanted someone sitting on the bench in the photograph. Usually I like the absence or suggestion of humans in my images but decided to try it out. I found that her presence in this image gives the propeller perspective, adds the human element and the dark of her sweater added a counter point to the brightness of the propeller. Thank you Barbara.
Plate 9: Kitty and Sandy’s Seat, Stromness, Orkney, 2006
As a counter point to the previous image, Kitty and Sandy’s Seat holds a hint of melancholy for me. This bench faces the island of Hoy, with the narrow entrance to Scapa Flow in between. When I was making this image I was thinking about the use of stone on Orkney and how the stonewalls serve as a tracing of the landscape. I wanted to find a place where I could see a wall in the fore ground with more walls on the gently rolling hills in the background. I knew this spot and had visited it before, so I returned shortly after sunrise one March morning. The way the light was striking the triangular stone set in the seat allowed me to recognize this bench as some sort of memorial. I don’t know the true story behind Kitty and Sandy and why this seat is there, but I can make up my own version of Romeo and Juliet and place it gently with this bench. Plates 8 & 9 were paired in the book with thoughts of looking in and looking out, about the presence of and memorial to, life.
Plate 10: Heartbreaker, County Show, Kirkwall, Orkney, 2007
This image is one of several I set out to make in an effort to discover the Orkney that went beyond the Neolithic “Disney world” and medieval and religious architecture. I wanted to photograph a regularly occurring event that that resonated with my own life in Maine. This turned out to be the August agricultural fairs and arguably the biggest is the County Fair in Kirkwall. It is a one-day fair that celebrates the variety of contemporary life in Orkney. I photographed the animal judging and competitive backhoe events and lastly the rides that are so familiar to American County Fairs. This image reveals the beauty of a day in August, everyone having fun and motion all around. What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in late summer.
Plate 11: Boys’ Plowing Match, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, 2007
This event is unique to Orkney. Every year, on the island of South Ronaldsay, the Boys’ Plowing contest is held. This is a celebration of the agricultural life every bit as much as the County Fair. Plowing Contests take place in many places in Britain and other countries with a agricultural countries, this particular take on it is unique to South Ronaldsay. Once a year at an August low tide, families, friends, and the curious gather to watch boys plow the packed sand. The young men plow furrows in the sand with small single blade plows. The idea is to see who can plow the straightest line and turn the best furrow. Sand is easier to plow than the Orcadian soil, and by having the contest on a beach gives a nod to the fishing components of island life as well. You can see those gathered on this August day are dressed for what looks like winter. It was a cold and blustery day, but every bit as representative of an August day in the Orkneys as the beautiful day at the County Fair in the previous image.