The Echo of the Landscape

Last weekend, I wrote a little story for my newsletter subscribers. When I finished writing and read through the story again, I suddenly realized that this was a blog post. I usually keep my blog and newsletter content separate, but I’m making an exception this time. It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share this image and the story behind it with you.

A Hidden Image Rediscovered

The image was made a few years ago for the series Timeline. Although I was happy with this image, I felt that it didn’t fit the series at the time. So, I stored it on a hard disk and moved on. Until I suddenly thought about it last week and decided to share its story.

Finding the Perfect Spot

I made the image in a natural area near my home a few years ago. It’s called Friescheveen, which is a fairylike fen area with a lake, swamp forest and many reeds. I often bring students here for a landscape photography workshop.

It took me hours to find the right spot to set up my camera for a 48 hour-exposure. When I saw this scene, I knew it was the one.

I focused on two trees. The white line in the image describes the sun’s path across the sky during the day. According to the Sun Surveyor app I was using, the sun would set precisely where the trees intersect. However, as often happens when I take pictures, this was not the case when I first saw the result. Something obviously went wrong when measuring the path of the sun. It’s not that I wasn’t happy with the result because I was, but it was just different than I thought it would be.

An Unexpected Encounter

Let me take you back to the day I picked up the camera after 48 hours. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in late spring. My 4-year-old son came along with me.

We parked the car and walked 20 minutes to the camera’s location. I had taped the camera to a tree and left a little note asking people not to touch it. When we arrived at the place, a family was inspecting it with curiosity.

They were kind people, and we had a pleasant conversation there for about 10 minutes. Only to find out the next day that our children went to the same school, which led to many more pleasant conversations in the following years.

Then, my son and I took the walk back to our car and ran into a couple with a bigger boy with Down syndrome. The boy saw my son, who was still very little and instantly fell in love with him.

My son simply accepted it, standing still and letting it happen. This pure and spontaneous connection deeply moved the parents and me. Years later, I still remember it vividly.

A Landscape with a Message

The next day, I developed the negative and was stunned by what I saw.

• A heart-shaped gap in the foliage.
  
• The two trees in the centre seemed to embrace.

It was just a picture of a landscape, yet it perfectly mirrored the previous day’s events.

That’s why this image is so precious to me.

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💛

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