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 Rainier National Park, in October 2018.
Oliver’s poem, from her collection American Primitive — which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 — is one of a handful of poems that I often return to when I’m in need of prayer. Several months following my father’s death, for instance, was one of those times.
In this montage, I’ve set a selection of my photos from Coplay to an excerpt from “In Blackwater Woods.” I don’t pretend that my images are worthy of her words, but I wanted somehow to honor the way in which the poem became my guide in the making of the book.
Gratitude!
Thank you Substackians for your purchases of Coplay. I have a couple more copies remaining that you can order through Etsy. You can also DM me directly, with Venmo, Paypal, and a few other options for payment.
(Update: Sold out of copies for now. I’ll be printing more.)
And thank you for watching.
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Beautiful images, quite striking
the video is beautiful, great work on the timing and each association of words and image.