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Barns In Snow
February 2002
There is something about snow on the roof of a barn that sparks the imagination. It changes the design of the building, creating white roofs in place of gray or black as if an architect has added a new accent. The snow is clean while the buildings tend to be old and worn, and the contrast is striking. That’s even true when the snow has melted off the roof but is still on the ground surrounding the barn. It’s somehow a metaphor for a new world and the old in touch with each other.
The cover photograph sets the tone for this portfolio. The light brown on the mountains with purple shadows in the distance, the gruff empty branches of winter trees, and the lonely barn with a snow pillow on top and a snow blanket below – it’s a mid-winter scene with which all Catskill Mountain residents can identify, although it takes a sharp camera eye to capture the beauty of this icy stillness. That may be even more true of the remarkable photograph on the cover of our portfolio, for, if we are not mistaken, the photographer seems to have used his magic camera to capture the light of the afternoon sun at the exact moment it shines through the window on top.
In the second photograph, we see a great hillside where the snow is gray under a leaden sky, while the snow on top of the barn has somehow retained its whiteness to give a clear outline of the roof. Then comes the double spread with the grand sweep of a winter landscape, the dark forest above and the clusters of trees below providing a dramatic frame for the scene. Then we find a barn that has the simplicity of a Georgia O’Keefe painting, and then a fine composition with the two geometric forms of white against a dark background, and the sunlit red side of the barn forming a contrast to the shady side with its neatly placed windows. And finally there is the impressive abstract pattern of a detail – the top of a snow-covered silo with two abutting sections of a barn and a pure blue sky on top.
February is the height of winter, and these views of barns and snow provided by our photographers celebrate the season with superb images.
— David Finn
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