black & white landscapes House on Fire

Looks like it is right out of 'Places of Power'! I might like to see the walls of the 'house' a bit darker though, but that is simply a lowly, humble opinion from a student :) Such great shots, wish i could see them BIG! One of my favorites here

Nice concept. I'm uploading a darker version for comparison.

(this was written by my twin sister, in response to a pro-military type-A personality on another message board.... but it is SO fitting here, under the house on fire, that i had to re-post it)

 

I must clarify that when I speak of humankind's lack of responsibility to "the entire pack", I'm not just referring to fellow humanity. I am a Panentheist. To me, humans hold no elevated position in the big scheme of things but are merely a fiber within it. I don't limit it to discussions of despots such as Hitler and Pol Pot where humanity is attempting to gain power over another segment of humanity. I include the total disregard for all other life forms that we have a tendency to consider as beneath us in importance.

 

There are those that wouldn't think to kill another human, but will mindlessly destroy a rain forest to make 'room for the expansion'. There are those that would use the world's oceans as a dump for their excessive waste with no thought to the balance of marine life that is a large part of the health of those oceans. Or use them to test our war machines with no thought to the whales and dolphins that will die because of it. There are those that deem it quite proper to anihilate another life form if they happen to be in the way of sustaining our insatiable needs for comfort and supremacy. There are those that deem it necessary to have an 'elimination' of a portion of a deer herd because it happens to wander in your back yard and partake of your garden, never realizing that your garden is in their back yard! I could use up four pages of posting space citing examples. It's a mindset I'm talking about here. A mindset which you (the status quo), too, seem to hold. That the Earth and the Physical Realm was put here for the use and furtherance only of man.

 

I didn't mean to insinuate that a hurricane had an intelligence that zeroed in and targeted a specific area. I didn't mean to insinuate that a certain amount of cyclic weather activity was not in play. I meant to illustrate that if you wipe out the Natural purposes of a barrier island, don't complain because the storm damage reaches into the billions. I meant to illustrate that when you destroy acres of wetlands to build homes, don't complain when a tropic area turns into a desert. Or, if you can't feed your children, don't expect me to do it because you reproduced with the enthusiasm of a rat. Again, I could cite four pages of examples. Natural Law is a system, a Scheme, that cares not who or what attempts to work outside of it before the balancing kicks in. If you think that, that man will ever have the intelligence or power to override it, it is you that has a stunning disconnect from reality, not me.

 

And, if you think that is balderdash, I'm sad. And, all I can do is continue to save maybe just one big Live Oak tree. Or, rant and rave about the senseless killing of wolves from an airplane so that one more trophy hunter can hang a taxidermied head over their fireplace. Or, send what I can to bolster the fight to save the Arctic and the Polar Bears. Or think twice before I toss that litter out of my car window. Oh yes, I do drive a car. I never said we should go back to horse and buggy. But, we should most definitely temper progress with a purer sense of purpose and compassion for all life. The bigger and better and strength through numbers mindsets will be our doom. And, with all due respect, if you think not, I offer that it would behoove you to remove yourself from the proverbial ostrich position

 

what makes this shot so powerful, to me, is not the asthetics or the composition of the photograph. it's the symbol of a house burning... more than just a house burning... a civilization burning... and the windows are empty - no human occupation.... burned themselves beyond the capacity for the land to provide for their numbers. it is impossible to tell how severe the drought was that is theorized to have driven them out of this area. what remains to this day is that nature is in command and if population goes on unchecked by virtue of man's inventions, in time, it does becomed checked and even checkmated.

 

and is this what we are essentially doing to ourselves now?

You're a far better photograher than writer. The two conflict.

 

That said, I'd like to see this darker, less contrasty (though I know your signiture look is contrasty).