Utah Over The Years (Part II)

January 8, 2025January 8, 2025 / Saikat / 1 Comment

It has been more than a year since I published a collection of images from Utah (here is the link to earlier blogpost if you are interested: Utah Over The Years (Part I) | Musings from North country).

There are too many curations, much dissection about how and when to release portfolios for maximum impact. This is an attempt at neither of the above except that I have some time in my hands to process a few images, and relive the experiences I have had over the years in some special corners of this place. They were made across all seasons, some alone and in contemplation, and others while running around and having a good time with friends (mostly Prajit). The images are again ordered chronologically for the sake of simplicity.

They say we see what we see and not what is out there, and what we write (or photograph) is what we know and not what we saw. On the other hand, I read this morning that ‘eyesight is also insight’ (from Rudolf Arnheim while elaborating on how visual perception works). Consider these images as hobbling towards an insight that I think truly never arrives, until one has spent a significant time of their life with the subject.

the Green River soothes
A soothing moment on the Green River in an otherwise mentally miserable trip in summer of 2020.

first Fall
My first time experiencing Fall in Utah in 2020, where much awe got into the way of seeing things as they are.

between the idea and reality
First sunset of the year 2021, when I was physically miserable in the frigid conditions but mentally satisfied, and beginning to nurture the idea of a new future.

between the emotion and the response
Spring of 2022, when I saw the fresh lime greens on cottonwoods for the first time. Since other aspects of life were somewhat conducive to well-being, I could be more present rather than being in a state of constant awe, and hence escape.

between the conception and creation

falls the shadow

it is still green

on both sides of the river
A new (to me) location in Utah in 2023 that is quite popular with photographers but afforded solitude because it was summer.

off the highway
Witnessing the summer storm from the safety of the road and rental car; little did I know that the following summer I will be doing a night hike in the middle of one with Prajit.

second Fall
A fortunate turn of events led me to experience Fall in Utah again in 2023, this time with fog, rain, snow, and hail storms.

one of those days
that makes it worth the while (summer of 2024)

when you see it
Thanks to Prajit for drawing my attention to this scene, on our very hot and dry return hike from the overlook. Please check his version on his profile: Prajit Ravindran (@irockutah) Instagram photos and Reels)

for the love of summer

Tessellations in Time

February 3, 2024 / Saikat / Leave a comment

“If your Lordship should consider that these observations may disgust or scandalize the learned, I earnestly beg your Lordship to regard them as private and to publish or destroy them as your Lordship sees fit.” – Anton van Leeuwenhoek

van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to study microbial organisms from his local pond in great detail in the 17th century. He developed his own macro camera aka the compound microscope! He was the first person to witness the blood flow in capillaries. All chaste subjects! But his colleagues egged him on to venture beyond the prevailing ethics of the time. He finally came around to the idea and examined his own ejaculation.

Life is rife with speculations, but especially so during his time. Some theories suggested that tiny pre-formed humans were nestled inside the sperm cells. Even Leeuwenhoek himself was skeptical about the ‘blasphemous’ experiments. Hence, the above disclaimer while sending the results to the Royal Society. Remember Galileo. Remember Giordano Bruno.

But Leeuwenhoek was fortunate to be in good company. The same cannot be said of sperm cells. They have to fulfill their destiny in a foreign environment. While they do not have a pre-formed life, they do possess the precursors that can bring life in conjunction with their counterparts. Millions perish, but they need to be successful only once.

Twelve thousand years ago, I might have hoped to go for a nice swim in Death Valley and make a hearty meal out of some crustaceans, not too unlike the organisms studied by Leeuwenhoek. If I were observant enough now, I could have come across the chemical remnants of the species that once called this place a home. An abundance of moisture, and a low-lying basin with no outlet made for a flourishing environment in a sub-tropical climate. But the tide changes with time. A host of geological factors that led to increasingly arid climate choked the pluvial lakes on their own minerals. Now, on a clear and warm evening, I walk among the neat, geometrically energy-efficient alkali crust left behind from ages of desiccation.

And on rare years, as thunderstorms bring rain to the valley, I see the tessellations disappear in a salty slush. I see before me a memory of what once was.

The next morning, I hike up and away from the tessellated hexagons. With the elevation as my guide, the intricate patterns in the salt flat, the alluvial fans from the dried-up lake bed, the residuum of a plethora of species that was, the dirt and dust and mud in the this Land of Little Rain– all coalesced into a green oval spermatozoon.

A camouflage of biological life, waiting with the elements. For the tide to turn again. For the Tüpippüh to flourish once more.

(adapted from original writing in 2021)

Utah Over The Years (Part I)

December 16, 2023December 16, 2023 / Saikat / 3 Comments

If it was not for the Adirondack Mountains, I would have strived to make a living in Utah. Over the years, I have been fortunate to visit different parts of Utah. I am terribly lazy and scatter-brained when it comes to processing my photos; and now with multiple trips over the years, they are starting to pile up. This is an attempt to revisit the files in hard drives, recall some of my favourite memories, and process (in some cases re-process) the images. This is not an attempt to create a portfolio of the best images or categorize in any other way.

I believe that in order to truly understand a place, one must live there. And if creation is an expressive testament to that understanding, then my images fall vastly short. Having acknowledged that, I feel that I have tried my best to understand Utah as much as an outsider can- by coming back to the same place, in different seasons, and in the same seasons in different years, reading and learning about the place, and contemplating the works of different artists from the region. All of the above have helped me make some images that I would like to share in a chronological order for the sake of simplicity.

The first one titled Fremont Gold is from 2018. Due to difficult personal scenarios, many parts of this trip were miserable but this late December afternoon, shivering by the river, was a welcome respite from the misery.

This one titled Step Into the Light is from 2020. This was my fifth trip to Utah but the first time during the Fall season. It was my first solo visit to Utah as well which meant there was no fixed itinerary or time table, thus making it the best kind.

This image, titled Dance With Me, is my personal favourite from this trip. The easy access from the roadside pullout brought me such joy every time I drove past this grouping of trees in the subsequent years. Alas, this year, I found that some of the trees have fallen.

From the same trip in 2020 came this image titled Canyon Possessed. I cannot say how far images go but touching canyon walls in person is a strong, strange feeling, and something I look forward to on every visit.

It took me another two years to witness the glory of cottonwoods in Spring. Here is one from my first Spring visit in 2022 titled 9 AM Light.

Though I have driven through Cathedral Valley thrice before, I camped up there for the first time in 2022 for three days. Here is one image titled Idle Afternoons.

The next few images are from this summer of 2023. Part of the trip was solo and part of it was in the company of good friends and passionate photographers- Eric Erlenbusch (@lausivee) and Prajit Ravindran (@irockutah). All the following images were made while exploring some new (to us) locations with Eric and Prajit. Though ‘three is a crowd’, it did not feel like that for once. Both of them are eccentric and serious in their own ways and helped me learn by observing their approach to making images.