My interest in the Western Landscape has recently brought me to the classic subject, waterfalls.

The Northwest where I reside is rich with water and waterfalls. For the best part of two years I have been photographing many of the significant larger falls in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. Later travels added a few incidentals from Colorado, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Kauai, Wyoming and Utah.

Besides the underlying qualities of form and place itself, with this subject I find myself drawn to the more elusive social aspect of the human experience of the falls.

Every culture responds to an outing to rushing waterfalls. I am taken by the variety of languages spoken, countries of origin, as well as the variety in the economic strata of waterfall viewers. Besides the ubiquitous “selfie”, families and friends see it as a classic backdrop for portraits of each of other. Many seem to seek it as a backdrop for the promise of new romance or for renewing memories of first meetings.

The falling water can also become a metaphor for letting go, a place to mourn a death or the end of a romance, gazing into the waters and leaving emotional baggage behind. Frozen in time by the camera, the spell binding moments of pulsing motion, filled with memories of the cascading sound of water come to express every beginning, every ending.