Cedar Island Light c.1990

Despite living a few miles from the lighthouse, yesterday was my first visit in five years. A mid-winter hike with a northwest wind can be a bit of a challenge and “desolate” hardly does the peninsula justice.

Since the light has been removed for restoration and the premises are now fenced in to protect the keeper’s house, I was curious about my older images of the building and spent an hour today converting a film negative from thirty years ago. That’s the picture up above.

More about the history of the 1839 lighthouse (and its restoration process) can be found at this link.

Another restoration process has been the one occupying my website for the last six weeks. Many of you are already fluent with CSS and the nooks and crannies of block editor. It’s been a learning process for me, and I’d be happy to answer any questions if I can be of help.

About my galleries: there’s over fifty up and running at my site now, and the effort has evolved slightly as the weeks have gone by. I began in more of a traditional mode, grouping images according to subject, abstractions etc. But that changed early on into a process which looks at how small groups of pictures tend to create something new. By opening up to the unexpected, a point has emerged: many photographs take on new life in a neighborhood.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to visit.

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35 thoughts on “Cedar Island Light c.1990”

  1. Wow. I can see why you grouped images together like this. The sum exceeds each amazing part! You have your own eye, but the feel of your work—if not always your compositions—recall Andrew Wyeth for me. Powerful stuff.

  2. Thanks for the link. An amazing whole on which each differentv part hangs beautifully. It was always powerful to see the individual posts, but here it easy to get lost in each fascinating selection…..

  5. I just took a short look at your website using the link. Impressing, how different the same photos appear, changing with their context. I’ll be back for sure to learn more about that, or just for pure enjoyment.

  6. A very tasteful and beautiful work you have achieved with your galleries. Selection and sorting enhance both individual images but also the overall impression. It was easy to get stuck in your image world, harder to get out….

  10. Its raining again here so its been a delight to ramble through your virtual galleries especially how the category titles opened out on to more of the unexpected. All worth the effort it must have taken to collate with CSS as well.

    The top photo, given the wind and desolation makes for a welcome and striking foreground shelter. Evidently you have been a consistently remarkable photographer for years.

    1. Thanks for such a nice extended comment. I did use CSS for adjusting various design elements or for disabling/enabling various things. The most recent tweak, for example, involved slightly extending the width of the content area. 

      I’m happy you found unexpected things happening in the galleries. It’s been a fascinating process for me watching these transformations.

      And thanks for the comment on the lighthouse. I never tire of them and if I could time travel, I’d be first on line to see the one in Alexandria.

      1. I too am drawn to lighthouses though have learnt they really need to be seen from afar or with an upward shot – ours are now all automated though I rather miss the old keepers of the light – though they may not!

        1. In my salad days, I had the good fortune of living next to the Fire Island Lighthouse for two years (working as a seasonal park ranger). It was before it was restored so, the memories have a special patina.

  11. The portfolio pages are amazingly impressive. The clusters blow up the impact of the already powerful single pictures. Time seems to stand still. And when nature is the subject, it seems they are timeless. It shouts for a book John, I would love to have the in my hands in hard copy.

    1. Since I know you’ve been doing this as long as I have, your thoughts are very much valued. Book ideas have come and gone, but there’s no question that it would be a unique project to create a book of clusters.

      Keep up your fine work Chris. Your mining of your older images always inspires me to do the same. Much appreciate your revisit– thanks so much

  12. You’ve been busy! I really like what you’ve done with the galleries and the way you framed it as taking on new life in a neighborhood. Drift, light stations, halcyon, and background music are just a few that inspire me after a quick look. But there are so many…I’ll have to go back again and again. Thank you for doing all that work. Finding those subtle correspondences between and among images is fun, isn’t it?

    The lighthouse photo was well worth getting into a digital framework, its drama is exciting.

  13. Oh its great to see your work displayed like this, shows its true beauty and impact – I like the thumbnail idea too, feels intriguing and like a “choose your own adventure”. I’m a bit impatient usually when looking at things online, but your work always makes me stand still, it really is something special and truly immersive. I too would love a book please! 😀

    1. Thanks so much Cath. Your comment about my new galleries means a lot, especially “choose your new adventure” which puts the concept into better words than I’ve been able to find.

  14. Also love this image, it reminds me of one of my favourite books as a child, “Marianne Dreams”. Marianne draws an isolated lighthouse with rocks around it with a special pencil, and she ends up in the picture in her dreams, the rocks end up being rather menacing creatures who watch their every move..!

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