Ra
- 📍 Location: Les Pyramides, Le Port-Marly, Yvelines, France
- 📅 Date: 2021
The title came before the edit. The sun drops into the notch of the far treeline and sits there for a few seconds as a single disc, and there is no other word for what that looks like: an old solar god, low on the water, receiving the end of the day.
I exposed for the sun and let everything else fall. The bank, the trees, the near shore all collapse into one black silhouette, which is exactly what I wanted: a picture with only two values, the light and the absence of it, and nothing in between to soften the statement.
The water was dead still, so the disc repeats below the treeline and the composition folds along its own centre. Above it, a thin streak of cloud catches enough warmth to keep the sky from being empty, and it is the only detail I allowed myself in the upper half of the frame.
This pond sits a few hundred metres from the Seine, hemmed in by houses and a road, and none of that appears here. I like that photography can be a form of choosing: not lying about a place, but deciding which of its truths gets to be the one you keep.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
