Sunrise on Provence
- đź“Ť Location: Plateau de Valensole, Provence, France
- đź“… Date: 2022
The same house, a little later, with the sun now above the haze and out of the frame. What is left is a very soft, almost shadowless light, and a sky that runs from pale peach at the horizon to almost white overhead.
I moved much closer and framed the building and its cypress near the centre, with the rows opening outward from the bottom corners. At this distance the house has weight, the cypress becomes the tallest thing in the picture, and the field turns from a subject into a setting.
Without a sun in the frame there is nothing to expose against, so the whole image sits high and light. That is the point: the plateau spends about twenty minutes in this state every clear morning, and it is the only time it looks gentle.
Two frames, one place, forty minutes apart, and they are not the same photograph. Staying put after the obvious picture has been taken is a discipline I had to learn, and it is where most of my better work now comes from.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
