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it intersects past the end
The long shadows and the clouds above seem destined to meet, somewhere on the other side of the dunes, on the far side of the mountains, maybe in Mimbres or Silver City or even Upham. Or maybe they decide to stay there, on an alkali flat in the middle of the gypsum dunes…
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.14.2025
a lullaby for suffering
Lately I’ve been re-listening to Leonard Cohen…
When I look at this scene, I am unable to decide if the sand is encroaching on the branches and will eventually cover them, or if the branches spend their time escaping the sand and will eventually join their colleagues on the next dune over.
The more I look, the more uncertain I am.
But what does this have to do with Leonard Cohen? Nothing, probably, except that my mind connects photographic confusion and his lyric:
There’s a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it’s written in the scriptures
And it’s not some idle claim
You want it darker, we kill the flame
Paradox. Darker. Flame. Suffering.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.14.2025
sand/snake, 2
Remember yesterday when I sort of made fun of myself about spending a long time taking photos of a stick?
Look what happened: the very next day I did the same thing with a different stick.
Consistency is evidently an important part of my process.
photographed 12.14.2025
sand/snake, 1
If I told you how long I spent making this photo and/or how many images I made you’d have one of two reactions:
1. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? It’s a stick. One stick. In an entire national park of stuff, you wasted that much time on…a…STICK?
or
2. Yes. That seems about right.
I do not think there’s any middle ground here.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025




