Understanding Vernacular Landscape

Vernacular landscape incorporates spatial structures intimately associated with regional environments, agricultural production, and rural life.

From Sage Rerference:

Vernacular landscapes, sometimes termed ordinary landscapes, are the surfaces of everyday life that we see all around us and that are created and re-created daily. Cultural geographers study vernacular landscapes to understand the lives of ordinary people who live in those landscapes. Ordinary landscapes take the form of everyday places such as parking lots, tree-shaded suburbs, trailer parks, or a patchwork of fields in Midwestern U.S. farmlands. They are lived in and are continuously changing.

A vernacular landscape is the combination of natural and human structures in the context of ordinary people's lives.

Landscape Practice

I’ve just begun a new online class taught by Paul Sanders in which students use one lens, a 50mm, for an entire year. The first assignment is to make landscape pictures. This is NOT my strength. I started practicing today with more traditional landscape views, but really I’m much more interested in vernacular landscape, so that will likely be my primary direction. We’ll see how it goes.

The Photo Book is Finally Complete!

And you can view it here!

For my husband, Dave, forever and always. And for Zachary and Jacob, the brightest flowers in my garden.

James Crews shared his beautiful poem, A Friend’s Voice, in his newsletter today. I love how the poem describes the gentle joy of being called honey or sweetheart by a friend. I do this, call my loved ones by these old-fashioned terms of endearment. And I melt when someone calls me the by the same.

James goes on to explain:

Who doesn’t want to feel valued by a someone willing to ask all the right questions so that, for hours and even days after, we feel more seen, known, and valued by another? If we are lucky enough to have a friend like this, we must not only keep them close, but also tend that relationship as we would a garden that helps to feed us and keep us alive. What else is a friendship if not a garden that can sustain us even in the leanest of times?

I would add . . . if we are lucky enough to have family like this, and I do.

I have friends like this, too. Teresa, thank you for sitting with me as I shared the mock-up of this book, turning the pages one-by-one and asking all the right questions.

This is the feeling I love most and the one I try to extend to others—to feel more seen, known, and valued. In the end, I think this is mostly what making these photo books is about. It’s not about money or praise or accomplishment, it’s about refusing to hold back my love.

Learn One Small Thing Properly

I am still suffering with pain in my left thigh due to an entrapped femoral nerve. As a former physical therapist, I have some understanding of the various places along its route where the nerve could be compressed. I am doing all of the appropriate exercises (stretches and nerve glides). I’ve used a heating pad, Biofreeze, Lidocaine patches, foam rolling, and a massage gun. The pain is much better; I can now walk around the block. But, it’s frustrating to live with pain every day, and I have deep sympathy for those that do. I try to reframe this situation in as many positive ways as possible, without invalidating my own experience. One thing that definitely helps to distract me from the pain is creative work. Fortunately, sitting is reasonably comfortable, so I have been able to work on my photo book, process photos, and even take pictures as long as I don’t have to stand for too long. The creative work reminds me of the good in my life; it grounds me and helps me to keep my perspective.

To avoid focusing on the pain, I’ve been learning all about pressing flowers. I purchased a beautiful handmade flower press from Hope Steinle, and I’ve been experimenting with different flowers. My first efforts are mixed, but I find the process to be deeply calming. The simple act of picking a few flowers at their prime, placing them carefully between two pieces of blotting paper, compressing the pages between pieces of heavy wood, secured with bolts and wingnuts, and then simply waiting, is meditative. The process is all analog and very intuitive. And the results are stunning—eliciting awe and wonder and memory. Every detail preserved.