Coplay Photographs and Mary Oliver

A montage of lake images with "In Blackwater Woods"

As I was sequencing the photographs for my book project Coplay, Mary Oliver’s beautifully elegiac poem “In Blackwater Woods” became my guide. I can’t quite explain how that happened, but trust me that it did.

The collection of photographs in Coplay came out of a weekend that I spent with friends at Coplay Lake, a small alpine lake outside of Mount Rainie…