A Portrait
Nature photography is a bit like fishing, combining the serenity of quiet attention with the excitement of catching a fleeting thing of beauty. And it does so while taking little more than a memory and leaving only a fading footprint.
My passion for photography of all things wild extends back to my early youth, to a time when my footprints led into the spectacular mountains of my native country of Austria. Spellbound by the dramatic scenery, I photographed feverishly in an effort to catch and remember the power and beauty of nature. I discovered that the camera, rather than being a distraction from nature, demanded that I be more present, that there is no place for idle daydreams in the moment of creativity. From that time forward, I sought out the wild places of my adopted home, making ever deeper forays into the landscape of the American West.
The western United States, including my home state of Colorado, harbors some of the most inspiring wild landscapes on the planet. Translating and communicating that inspiration through the medium of photography is for me both a passion and a challenge. Poetry often speaks volumes with few words. In the same way, the art of landscape photography can convey more by showing less. We wonder through a three-dimensional world that fills our senses to the periphery with a rich experience of detail and motion. The photo, by contrast, is a finite canvas, a static world laid flat and bounded by edges. Include too much and the details are diminished to insignificance. Include too little and the context vanishes into abstraction. Like poetry, the photographic art is in framing only the essential elements needed to communicate the experience.
For many people the natural landscape offers a refuge from the noise of modern living. The untrammeled horizons of wilderness have a great power on the spirit, providing perspective through sheer scale and the space for quiet introspection. Immersed in a place without judgement or agenda, without walls to limit the imagination, it’s easier to discover our place in the cosmos. This, for me, is the essential experience of nature. The camera is my chosen brush and canvas with which I work to communicate that experience. Of course, no photograph or video, no painting or statue, can match the artistry and intricacy of nature. But it can help us remember. It is my hope that these windows into nature convey a glimpse of the inspiration and wonder that nature’s artistry so effortlessly displays.
-Puska
