Size: 18” x 36” with a 1” white border on Hahnemuhle 300gsm cotton rag paper

Signed & stamped in verso

See Rough and Dark, the Structure of Duality No. 1 to read the first part of this essay, and then come back here.

The structure of compositional elements is up to you, it’s where technical prowess and aesthetics merge to create whatever it is you’re trying to say. Landscape photography, more than any other visual medium is about searching the external world to find your already created canvas. The role then is that of sculptor to remove distraction, to isolate subject. The most powerful visual way to do this is through compositional duality. One area within the image supporting the other through weight, tonality, color, density, space. I say duality and I mean that in the sense that these photographic elements are not mutually exclusive but linked. Each in tension with the other but holding on with outstretched hands, fingers interlaced.

We live in a gray world. But art in its most pure takes this gray and reduces it to a dual nature. Not an us versus them but rather an us within them. And before you say, not I, I am nothing like the other I challenge you to find your own duality and see for yourself what fingers you have outstretched.

Location: Mono Lake, Eastern Sierra

Nikon D810, Voigtlander 40mm, 2-stop split ND, 5 vertical frames