Cub Run
Cub Run is a stream that runs through a portion of western Fairfax County. Between 1998 and 2000, I began exploring and photographing a section of the stream and adjoining parkland that lies nearest to Centreville, Virginia. As with my other work presented on this site, the photographs shown here are a small sample selected from a larger collection.
My photographs in this series were very much inspired by Ralph Eugene Meatyard's late 1960's photographs of Kentucky's Red River Gorge. Meatyard's photographs were taken in collaboration with the environmentalist and writer Wendell Berry, working together in an effort to save the Gorge from destruction via man-made flooding. Their collaboration resulted in the book, "The Unforeseen Wilderness," first published in 1971.
As represented in the first publishing of the book, Meatyard's photographs reflect a somewhat compressed scale of gray tones, with deep shadows on one end and stark highlights on the other. I found this presentation to be very effective, as it seemed to accurately portray a wilderness untrammeled by man while providing a sense of mystery and discovery and suggesting a land being seen for the first time. The sense of randomness in many of his compositions gave a nebulous quality to some of the photographs that served to amplify this sense of mystery and discovery.
A flowing river or stream can be allegorical of many things. Ostensibly, my photographs of Cub Run are an acknowledgment and appreciation for a little known stream and natural area. In my wanderings and reflections, thoughts of natural history, permanence, and the geological passage of time were foremost. Equally important, although less tangible, was my awakening to and acknowledgment of the streams subtle lyricism, its untold mysteries, and its poetic beauty.
