259
the acutely detailed image of an orchid leaf in 1839, by Sarah Anne Bright
(1793–1866);
24
and on to a genre of noumenal solemnity that throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries evoked the most solemn, nostalgic, and
noble of memories. The runaway lures of this new technology were splashed across
the new world of illustrated books, with titles such as The Gallery of Nature, Home
Ballads, Song of the Sower, Story of the Fountain, The Riddle Of The Tsangpo
Gorges, The Worst Journey in the World, My Climbs In The Alps And Caucasus, The
Ascent of Mount St. Elias, Among The Waterfalls Of The World, Abbeys and Castles
of Great Britain and Ireland, Ruins And Old Trees Associated With Remarkable
Events In English History, and Winter In Arabia. They all form a distinct genre that
combines our lost hopes, vanished geographies, and thorough trouncing of the laws
of physics and biology: Something else is at work in the powers of nostalgia, a subset of life that is enshrined in dreams of an opium eater, of sandcastles, and rabbitholes. Or, of that inescapable sensation that life is/was always greener and better
among horizons and heirlooms. The first principle of modern ecology. What does it
say about the contemporary psyche?
27.5 Mortality and Memory
Today, in the works of such luminaries as Michael Kenna working in Japan,
25
or his
France,
26
Tom Chambers’ hallucinatory-like rapid-eye movement sensations of otherworldly Mexico captured in a work entitled Dreaming In Reverse – Soñando
Hacia Atrás,
27
or, again, Kenna’s floating imagery of Huangshan;
28
the works of
Rocky Schenk, particularly his partially blurred illustrations to the Authors’ novella,
Jan & Catharina,
29
Sebastião Salgado’s An Uncertain Grace,
30
and one of the most
intoxicating photographic albums of the last 50 years, Don Hong-Oai’s Photographic
Memories – Images From China And Vietnam,
31
with dream dissolving photographs
entitled “Lovers, Vietnam,” (1966), “Floating In Spring, Hunan,” (1998) and
“Morning On The River Li, Guilin,” (1986). These are fixities, central pillars of a
24 See “How 1170-year-old ‘Leaf’ provoked a hunt for the world’s first photographer,” by Nick
Clark, The Independent, July 5, 2015. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/how-a-170-year-old-leaf-provoked-a-hunt-for-the-world-s-first-photographer-10367441.
html, Accessed March 13, 2020.
25 1987–2002, Nazraeli Press, Tuson, Arizona 2001.
26 Nazraeli Press, 2009, www.nazraeli.com
27 Photo-Eye Editions, Santa Fe, NM, 2011.
28 Nazraeli Press, Portland Oregon, 2010.
29 Santa Monica, Smart Art Press, 1998.
30 An Uncertain Grace: Essays by Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin, by Sebastião Salgado,
Aperture Foundation, New York, 1990.
31 Custom & Limited Editions, New York and San Francisco, 2000.
27.5 Mortality and Memory
the acutely detailed image of an orchid leaf in 1839, by Sarah Anne Bright
(1793–1866);
24
and on to a genre of noumenal solemnity that throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries evoked the most solemn, nostalgic, and
noble of memories. The runaway lures of this new technology were splashed across
the new world of illustrated books, with titles such as The Gallery of Nature, Home
Ballads, Song of the Sower, Story of the Fountain, The Riddle Of The Tsangpo
Gorges, The Worst Journey in the World, My Climbs In The Alps And Caucasus, The
Ascent of Mount St. Elias, Among The Waterfalls Of The World, Abbeys and Castles
of Great Britain and Ireland, Ruins And Old Trees Associated With Remarkable
Events In English History, and Winter In Arabia. They all form a distinct genre that
combines our lost hopes, vanished geographies, and thorough trouncing of the laws
of physics and biology: Something else is at work in the powers of nostalgia, a subset of life that is enshrined in dreams of an opium eater, of sandcastles, and rabbitholes. Or, of that inescapable sensation that life is/was always greener and better
among horizons and heirlooms. The first principle of modern ecology. What does it
say about the contemporary psyche?
27.5 Mortality and Memory
Today, in the works of such luminaries as Michael Kenna working in Japan,
25
or his
France,
26
Tom Chambers’ hallucinatory-like rapid-eye movement sensations of otherworldly Mexico captured in a work entitled Dreaming In Reverse – Soñando
Hacia Atrás,
27
or, again, Kenna’s floating imagery of Huangshan;
28
the works of
Rocky Schenk, particularly his partially blurred illustrations to the Authors’ novella,
Jan & Catharina,
29
Sebastião Salgado’s An Uncertain Grace,
30
and one of the most
intoxicating photographic albums of the last 50 years, Don Hong-Oai’s Photographic
Memories – Images From China And Vietnam,
31
with dream dissolving photographs
entitled “Lovers, Vietnam,” (1966), “Floating In Spring, Hunan,” (1998) and
“Morning On The River Li, Guilin,” (1986). These are fixities, central pillars of a
24 See “How 1170-year-old ‘Leaf’ provoked a hunt for the world’s first photographer,” by Nick
Clark, The Independent, July 5, 2015. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/how-a-170-year-old-leaf-provoked-a-hunt-for-the-world-s-first-photographer-10367441.
html, Accessed March 13, 2020.
25 1987–2002, Nazraeli Press, Tuson, Arizona 2001.
26 Nazraeli Press, 2009, www.nazraeli.com
27 Photo-Eye Editions, Santa Fe, NM, 2011.
28 Nazraeli Press, Portland Oregon, 2010.
29 Santa Monica, Smart Art Press, 1998.
30 An Uncertain Grace: Essays by Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin, by Sebastião Salgado,
Aperture Foundation, New York, 1990.
31 Custom & Limited Editions, New York and San Francisco, 2000.
27.5 Mortality and Memory