Heroes Not Zombies

This is one of my most favourite photos. Here in the Charente we are blessed with incredible sunsets. There are, of course, all different kinds of sunsets, but one that I love most is the “immersive” kind. That’s where the entire sky changes colour. You know, watching a large disc of red sun sink below the horizon, is wonderful, but when the entire sky turns an infinite range of reds and purples it’s really something else.

When you are witnessing a scene like that, you are IN that scene. You are a part of it. You feel absorbed by it, entranced by it, enchanted by it. It’s a real world magical experience.

This particular evening I crouched down behind the old well in the garden and took this photo. I love the silhouette of the old iron bowl on its chain, suspended over the hidden depths of the water in the well, with the vibrant, glowing, fiery sky behind and above it.

That well has water in it. It’s over 20 metres down. We measured it using a ball of string with an old key tied on the end. 20 metres looks a long way down. When you peer into the well, (which is normally closed with a padlocked metal lid), you see a long dark vertical tunnel with a flicker of light in its very depths. Looking more closely you can make out shapes and colours which you know are the reflections of the sky, and of you. It’s a bit like looking into a kaleidoscope and recognising yourself.

This old iron bowl looks rather like a cauldron to me, which also inspires me to think of magic. It adds to the whole experience of being enchanted. So, maybe it’s not a surprise that what comes flooding into my mind when I look at this image are thoughts of alchemy…..of how we humans learned to work with both fire and water. Where would we be without either of these elements? Where would we be without having learned some of the secrets of fire and water?

Mind you, we’ve still got a LOT to learn! Do we really understand fire and heat and how to interact with it, how to live with it, how to thrive with it? Do we really understand water?

Of course there is a third element to consider when we experience a sunset like this……the observer, the one who is experiencing, the subject. It’s you, it’s me, it’s us. The truly astonishing alchemy of this is when we, as conscious, living, human beings, perceive and experience the fire and the water, and blend our memories and imagination to fashion an expression of those lived moments.

There is definitely a kind of alchemy in photography.

There is definitely a kind of alchemy in being human.