I recently came across a photographer who's work caught my eye. "After the Flash Flood" by Joel Sternfeld was shown during a lecture about landscape photographers and the different ways landscape can be interpreted.
At first glance I thought it was a scene taken from a Movie. The car seemed to be suspended in mid air as if just driven off the edge of the cliff. It was taken at Rancho Mirage, California July 1979 after this unsuspecting natural disaster hit the suburban area. Its idyllic because of the strongly saturated colours. The line where the landslide has taken the earth away is so defined and crisp its as if a giant has taken a great slice out of the earth. You can even see the different layers of sedimentary rock that lies below the houses. This scene of evident destruction is juxtaposed against the peaceful blue mountainous area behind conveying a message of nature having its presence known. As we develop through the decades becoming more greedy for land and our earth's natural resources we forget the strength and power it has over us. Floods are one of the most devastating and biggest killers in the world as we have no way of defending ourselves against it or even predicting it. A great example would be the unfortunate events in Southeast Asia with the tsunami in 2004 that wiped out and destroyed many people's lives. This epic image from Sternfeld shows the way nature fights back against humanity and wakes us up to who who rules the land at the end of the day, and we should respect that. Until next time...
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