Broad Brook Road
12x12 Studies Project
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A Collection of Photographs made
on or near the road that runs
next to Broad Brook
in Guilford, Vermont
Introduction
In late October, 2023, my wife Gloria and I traveled to Guilford, Vermont to visit her sister Phyllis and our brother-in-law, Jim, a close friend of mine going back to college days (mid-to-late 1960's). They began living permanently in their Vermont house in 2010; it is situated on the side of a mountain that overlooks a beautiful, lively brook named Broad Brook, and a curvy, narrow dirt and gravel road that is named after the brook. We usually visit them at least once a year, though that was not possible during the Covid Pandemic. It's a six hour drive for us from Canandaigua, NY; once we get close to Albany the drive takes us through some very beautiful mountainous landscapes.
During our visits Gloria and I take walks with Phyllis up and down the road along the brook. I have always loved seeing and hearing the sounds of the moving water, but for many years I was too preoccupied with other projects, concepts, subject matters, etc. to shift my focus to photographing in nature during our visits to Vermont.
Truth be told, I often felt too intimidated by the brook's powerful living presence to feel comfortable enough photographing in or on the edge of the brook until the summer of 2014 when I was working on my Angel project. Only a few of those early images were published in the Angel project, but the experiences I had in Vermont during our 2014 visit (see my story, The Fall Upwards) prepared me for the following year's visit, in the fall of 2015. I was looking forward to trying to photograph Vermont's colored leaves in the woods that surround Jim and Phyllis's house and the brook.
In 2015 I photographed mostly along the road . . . until the last day before we left. The results of that photographic adventure was, as a whole, astounding, to me. The success of the project Field of Vision inspired three additional, important Broad Brook projects which I completed in 2016 and 2017. (See the list I have provided below.)
After I prepared all the Field of Vision photographs for publication in my blog I was inspired to add an Epilogue to the project which reveals my inner awakening to the brook's sacred presence and the brook's relationship to the sacred space within myself, which in the yoga that I practice, Siddha Yoga, is said to be the human Heart.
Broad Brook Photography Projects
Broad Brook Guilford, Vermont
Here is a list of early blog projects which contain
only a few images of Broad Brook;
This second list contains projects devoted solely to
Broad Brook and Broad Brook Road.
Jim & Phyllis, Gloria and our daughter Jessica walking down Broad Brook Road
I of course continue to take my camera whenever we visit Jim and Phyllis. Photographing has become for me part of the loving bond I feel toward the brook, the road, the surrounding Vermont mountains and forests in the area, though after the completion of the 2017 project, I have photographed in Vermont only occasionally, and in a much more relaxed way.
The first set of ten images in this project were made during a walk I took with Gloria and Phyllis on the road down-stream during the last day of our short visit in October, 2023. The new photographs inspired me to publish the new work along with a collection of previously made and published images from, on, or near Broad Brook Road and the surrounding areas.*
(*Note: For the past few years I have been creating theme-related collections of images from my past photography blog projects. To see my entire updated list of theme-related projects please click here.)
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If you walk down-stream on Broad Brook Road (see the image immediately above) the brook is on your right. The left side of the road often butts up against the bottom edge of the mountain on which Jim and Phyllis built their house. Some sections of the mountain's edge open up with broader views of the mountain's side, but much of the mountain's edge near the road can be very steep; indeed there are areas near the road that are like a stone wall that runs high up into the woods. (See images 6 & 7)
The brook-side of the road that I am familar with is full of varied cultivated and wilderness spaces. You can see a full sized tipi, and then areas filled with trashed cars, trucks and old trailer homes; you could see some very nice permanent residences, and other odd looking buildings, some lived in, some abandoned. From the road many wonderful views open onto the brook and into large spaces of ancient forest. In front of one house the owner has placed a series of stacked stones along the road, each one different from the others. (See image #8).
If you walk along the road up-stream you will eventually come upon a bridge which looks over a beautiful and sometimes intimidating area of turbulent waters with what can become a rather dramatic waterfalls. The falls is especially fascinating to watch after a major rain in the Northern Vermont mountains within the past day or two. The flow of water can be so intense in Broad Brook that its current will move large underwater boulders; if two bang into each other under water, they can create a haunting sound like distant thunder.
Broad Brook Water Falls, taken in 2015, a few feet from Broad Brook Road
This image has an "angelic presence" for me. In 2014 I made a
photographing the brook and its surroundings.
I have fallen in love with this part of Vermont, but most importantly, for me and also for Gloria, it is our loving relationships with Jim and Phyllis that has drawn us to Vermont over and over again. The sacred presence of Broad Brook and the surrounding Vermont woods has inspired me to make some of my most cherished and grace-filled photographs over the years. In the act of photographing any subject over and over again, with intensity, I have often experienced a feeling of being kindred-in-spirit with the subject, or place. This has certainly happened to me with Broad Brook, its road and the surrounding woods near where Phyllis and Jim live.
The Photographs
~ Set 1 ~
This first set of ten photographs was made in late October, 2023 on the last day of our visit with Jim and Phyllis. I have included the two interior photographs here as well because Jim and Phyllis' house sits just a few feet above and away from the road and the brook which flows beside it.
Note: to enlarge the images below for a closer view of detailed areas,
click once, then once again on an image; you can also zoom-in
and zoom-out after clicking on the image, and you can try
adjusting image brightness on your screen. To learn
more about getting the best viewing quality for
my published blog images click here.
Image #1 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 Vermont Woods (Trees and leaves close to the road)
(Note: All ten images is this first set, and all other images which include in their title 12x12"
exist as inkjet prints, 12x12" in size; and if not yet published, they will eventually be
included in the forthcoming Book Five of the growing series 12x12" Studies. )
Image #2 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 Vermont Woods (Trees and leaves close to the road)
Image #3 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 Vermont Woods (Forest view from the road)
Image #4 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 (Brook view from the road)
Image #5 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 (Brook view from the road)
Image #6 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 (#1 Stone outcropping from side of the mountain next to the road)
Image #7 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 (#2 Stone outcropping from the side of the mountain next to the road)
Image #8 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 (Three Stacked Stones next to Broad Brook Road)
Image #9 12x12" Study 10/2023 (Inside Jim and Phyllis' house : double reflection of lamp, blue tree, Jim in the foreground)
Image #10 12x12" Study, Late October, 2023 (Phyllis' Still Life with birds, plants, pictures and lamp)The Photographs
~ Set 2 ~
Note: in this second set, the photographs have been printed in 2023, selected from several earlier published blog projects.
Image #11 12x12" Study, (Inside Jim and Phyllis's house : reflection of lamp & front deck railing 2017 )
Image #12 12x12" Study, (Jim standing inside their house behind the sliding door & screen 2017 )
Image #13 12x12" Study, (Garage Roof viewed from the road through some trees 2017 )
Image #14 12x12" Study, (Outcropping #3 of stone on the mountain's edge near the road 2016)
I have made many similar photographs of the stones and outcroppings of stone on the side of the mountain
next to Broad Brook Road. I like each one for their differences though at first they may seem repetitive.
I suspect some images are of the same rocks photographed years apart, revealing subtle changes.
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Image #15 12x12" Study, (Outcropping of "stone steps" near the road 2017 )
Image #16 12x12" Study, (Stone, vines, plants on the side of the mountain near the road 2017 )
Image #17 12x12" Study, (Dust covered plant near the road 2016)
The Broad Brook Road is very curvy and at some locations dangerous for those who walk
on the road. Locals think nothing of going 50 mph on curves that provide no
view of all of oncoming traffic or those walking on foot. The speeding
cars kick up lots of dust if there has been no rain for a while.
Image #18 12x12" Study, (A constellation of blue shale pieces laying on moss-covered stones on the mountain side of the road 2016)
Image #19 12x12" Study, (Outcropping #4 : a moss covered stone near the road 2016 )
Image #18A 12x12" Study, Symmetrical Photograph (large stone near Broad Brook Road 2017)
Image #20 12x12" Study, (Symmetrical photograph - Shadows on a large stone near Broad Brook Road 2017)
My Symmetrical Photographs are usually constructed with a single "straight" photograph
repeated f0ur times and conjoined. To learn more about the process click here.
Image #21 12x12" Study, "Khidr" (Symmetrical photograph of roadside green foliage on the mountain wall 2017)
(This poem, by Rumi, mentions Khidr)
One night a man was crying Allah. Allah.
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said, So. I have heard you calling out,
but have you ever gotten any response?
The man hand no answer for that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep
where he dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick green foliage.
Why did you stop praising? Because
I've never heard anything back.
This longing you express
is the return message.
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.
(A poem translated by Coleman Barks from his book A Year With Rumi)
To learn more about Khidr visit the Afterword in my project:
Image #22 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph of trees and a Garage Roof --constructed with image #13 above, 2017)
The Photographs
~ Set 3 ~
Three " Butterfly" symmetrical photographs
Image #23 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph [Butterfly #1] constructed with a roadside stone wall image, 2017)
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Image #24 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph [Butterfly #2] constructed with a roadside stone wall image, 2017)
Image #25 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph : Broad Brook Road [Butterfly #3], 2017)
This image was constructed with a photograph I took of leaves that had been windswept into a pile on a
small section of Broad Brook Road. I was inspired to make the image by the tree shadows that had fallen on the road.
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Image #25A This 12x12" symmetrical image was included in Book Nine; titled "Symmetrical Photograph (Broad Brook Road)"
~ Set 4 Photographs ~
Selected photographs from from my 2015 project "Field of Vision."
Image #26 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph (field of leaves just off of Broad Brook Road, 2015)
This photograph and images # 26, 27, 28 & 29 (below) are from my 2015 project Field of Vision. The source
images for the symmetrical constructions were made during walks I took along the brook, on Broad Road,
during a visit to Vermont in the late Fall to see all the colored leaves Jim and Phyllis had been telling
us about on the phone. I had not yet ventured into the brook itself to make photographs, but my
relationship to the brook deepened significantly while I photographed for this project.
See my Epilogue to the project in which I express my heartfelt feelings for the
sacredness of the brook, and the natural world as a whole. Broad Brook is
visible in the photograph above. It's the blue color behind the leaves.
The brook's blue water is also visible in image #30.
Image #27 12x12" Study, Symmetrical photograph (field of leaves just off of Broad Brook Road, 2015)
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Image #28 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph (field of leaves just off of Broad Brook Road, 2015)
Image #29 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph (field of leaves just off of Broad Brook Road, 2015)
Image #30 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph (field of leaves just off of Broad Brook Road, 2015)
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Image #31 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph (field of leaves just off of Broad Brook Road, 2015)
(This concludes my selection of images from the Field of Vision project.)
As I was working on this project (Broad Brook Road) I was also working on another project entitled
"Circle Variations," a collection of photographs (selected from many of my past projects) which
pay homage to "The Roundness and the Oneness of Being". I will include several images
from the Field of Vision project in the "Circle" project because 1) I often think of my
symmetrical photographs as "round images," and 2) because in my 12x12" versions
of the symmetrical photographs, and the Field of Vision images in particular, I
emphasize the "roundness" of the imagery. Most of the Field of Vision
photographs embody (for me) the sacred presence I have often
experienced in ancient mandalas I've seen and admired.
~ Set 5 ~
Epilogue
Image #32 12x12" Study (Symmetrical photograph (burning bush on Broad Brook Road, 2015)
(Nearly every project seems to need an "Epilogue")
The photograph I used to construct the above symmetrical image was made just off of Broad Brook Road
very close to the water falls. Click here to learn more about how I construct the symmetrical photographs.
Image #33 12x12" Study Symmetrical photograph, October, 2022 (Forest Trees above the Brook)
Several years before Jim and Phyllis moved into their house on Broad Brook Road, Phyllis and Gloria's sister, Florence,
bought some land with an old A frame house on it across the road from the lot Jim and Phyllis later purchased.
Over several years she was able to have the old house, which is situated directly on and above the brook,
fully remodeled complete with a back deck that looks out over the brook toward the forest trees.
I constructed the symmetrical photograph above with an image I made from her back deck.
The image is particularly meaningful for for me in the way that it visually embodies
what I like to call an "Angelic Presence." (click here to read about "Angeles")
Photographs which embody for me Angelic Presence, or visually radiate a sense of Prayer
or a sense of the Sacred, are images that are functioning for me as True, living Symbols.
If this notion interests you I invite you to visit these two related blog links:
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The image below was also made on Florence's deck. The chair appears to be bowing inside a circle of
light. In the yoga that I practice, there is a sacred act called pranaming which is something like
bowing, such that the heart is placed above the head (the ego). It is an act in which the
divine nature of something is being acknowledged with respect, love and gratitude.
(See my project Photographs : October, 2022 for more discussion about the two images)
Image #34 12x12" Study A chair "pranaming" in a circle of light, Florence's back deck, overlooking Broad Brook, October, 2022)
Shri Rudrum
A Vedic Prayer
I am concluding this Epilogue with a few excerpts from a very long, ancient Vedic prayer known as Shri Rudrum. Lord Rudra is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Destroyer of all that is. Shri Rudrum is a prayer which acknowledges the divine power by which the world was made and the divine power which pervades the material with which all things have been created. The prayer praises and acknowledges the entire universe (everything in it) as the body of God, and as such describes everything as divine.
In 2015 I concluded the Field of Vision project with an Epilogue which contains these excerpts from Shri Rudrum. It feels appropriate to repeat these sacred words, again, in this project's Epilogue.
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Excerpts from Shri Rudrum:
Salutations to You, who have taken the form of sand and flowing water . . .
Salutations to You, who exist in flowing brooks and in great floods . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in roaring waves as well as in still waters . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in the tender grasses on the banks of the river and also in the foam of the river . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in green fields and farm yards . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in the tender grasses on the banks of the river and also in the foam of the river . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in green fields and farm yards . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in rocky terrain and also in meadows . . .
Salutations to You, who becomes both fresh leaves and also dry leaves . . .
Salutations to You, who are present in sound and also in its echo . . .
Salutations to You, who are in the form of the earth and also of light. . .
Salutations to You, who are present in atoms and dust . . .
Let there be salutations to that Lord Rudra . . . who pervades the entire cosmos.
This project was published and announced on my
blog's Welcome Page on November 12, 2023
Here are the blog projects from which most of
the images in this project were first published:
Other Related Blog Project Links
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.