TOP: February 2009 // Nikon F4, Nikkor 50 f/1.4, Fuji Provia 400
ABOVE: February 2023 // Nikon D700, Nikkor 85 f/1.8
ABOVE: February 2023 // Nikon D700, Nikkor 85 f/1.8
"The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light that got lost. Light at the blue end of the spectrum does not travel the whole distance from the sun to us. It disperses among the molecules of the air, it scatters in water. Water is colorless, shallow water appears to be the color of
whatever lies underneath it, but deep water is full of this scattered light, the purer the water, the deeper the blue. The sky is blue for the same reason, but the blue at the horizon, the blue of land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier, melancholy blue, the blue at the furthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance. This light that does not touch us, does not travel the whole distance, the light that gets lost, gives us the beauty of the world ... "
whatever lies underneath it, but deep water is full of this scattered light, the purer the water, the deeper the blue. The sky is blue for the same reason, but the blue at the horizon, the blue of land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier, melancholy blue, the blue at the furthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance. This light that does not touch us, does not travel the whole distance, the light that gets lost, gives us the beauty of the world ... "
—Rebecca Solnit, "The Blue of DIstance," from "A Field Guide to Getting Lost," 2005, Penguin Books
I first noticed blue street lamps in my town in the early months of the pandemic. They became a marker for the strange time, a mysterious, cobalt glow that infected groups of street lights or just one or two, here or there. They weren't supposed to be that way, though I grew attached. The bulbs were a factory defect and most have been replaced since. It's rarer to see them now, but I'm glad this one is nearby as its eerie cast reaches for the branches across the street each night.
