Upstate New York
After living and photographing in the American West for several decades, I moved East in 2006. In the West, milllons of acres — in the form of national and state parks, national forests, and BLM lands — are accessible to the public. In striking contrast, Columbia County, New York, where I now live, is 97% privately owned. Photographing landscape here means accessing private property. This entails trespassing, seeking the owner’s permission, or confining one’s self to the view from the road. As a wanderer and as a photographer, I feel a loss of freedom. Yet I appreciate that private property offers a revealing look at cultural values. How we choose to design, alter, manage and use our land reflects our ideas about nature, about home and property ownership, and about visual beauty.
