Painfully Blue
Photographing the sky seems so simple, yet it is a fluid, moving body. Edward Weston, writing about his 1923 Cloud Series stated, “Next to the recording of a fugitive expression, or revealing the pathology of some human being, is there anything more elusive to capture than cloud forms! … so swift and ephemeral, one can hardly allow the thought, 'Is this worth doing?' or, 'ls this placed well?’—for an instant of delay and what was, is not!" I share Weston’s fascination and formal approach and additionally, I am preoccupied with the sky itself, the spaces between the clouds. Sometimes the color is painfully blue. Sometimes gray and soft. Contrails paint straight white lines that turn into soft dissipating cotton. I find these marks across the sky beautiful and poetic. They speak to my yearning for exploration and the desire to be free from earthly constraints. But they also represent a very real, contemporary human dilemma, the prevalence of CO2 emissions from aviation fuel. The dire consequences of climate change being written in the sky. These photographs are an ode to that always present yet constantly changing space. To a sky that is disappearing. It is the breath of the planet, a highway for fortunate travelers, and a place for the dreams of wingless humans.