Chased by the Light: Day 5 – September 27, 5:15 p.m. Raven feather in rain

On this day, a squall had come through over Judd Lake and a rainbow shone over the water and a raven feather had fallen during the rain to rest on a three billion year old rock. Brandenburg was faced with a decision for the single shot that would define what kind of project Chased by the Light would become. It was a choice between the grand, panoramic shot or the smaller moment in nature which was quiet, intimate, deeper, and defied the conventional human distinction from nature in much of photography. Brandenburg chose the feather, defying the more commercial, predictable nature photography he sought to escape through the project. “In the long run, I think it tells a more emotional story of nature” (Shepard & Foucault, 2003).

Chased by the Light: Day 86 – December 17, 2:02 p.m. Wolf-killed deer

After coming upon a freshly-killed deer carcass, Brandenburg puzzled how to shoot such a graphic image it in an aesthetic way. He looked over to the branch of a balsam fir and thought that it was really just “recycled life” in a different form so he focused on the branch with the carcass in the background. While gruesome, this image serves to remind us that “all of us creatures eventually go back to the ground” (Shepard & Foucault, 2003). These cycles of life and death that govern the North Woods are the same powers to which we are also subject.

Looking for the Summer: Day 23 – July 13, 8:28 p.m. Fireweed and pines

The caption for this image in the back of Looking for the Summer reads:

“Firewood is a lovely opportunist in the plant world. Fire has always been a frequent event in a forest, so it’s only natural a plant evolved to quickly pioneer in the newly burned forest. The lovely pink and fresh blossoms are a sharp constrast to the fiery event that made their bed. It’s nature’s way of giving hope to the future after our human-perceived loss” (Brandenburg, 2003, The Stories section).

Part of what makes the tone of this project more joyful, celebrating the beauty of nature, is a need to look for and hold onto that beauty to cope with the loss one suffers after a disturbance like storm of 1999 dramatically changes the landscape. This image of hope captures the process on which Brandenburg embarks through the creation of Looking for the Summer.

Looking for the Summer: Day 55 – August 14, 7:28 p.m. Herons on Park Point

On this particular day, Brandenburg had traveled to Lake Superior to see “the big picture of nature, the real simplified aspect of one of the most grand lakes in the world…” (Shepard & Foucault, 2003). As he was walking to the shore in Park Point, MN, three Great Blue Herons landed in front of him, tired to the point of exhaustion from a flight across the lake. Brandenburg approached them and instead of taking flight quickly due to inherent shyness around humans, the birds merely watched him as he proceeded to come within three feet and shoot the peaceful image that made it into Looking for the Summer. For me this image qualifies as noteworthy because it is representative of the duel naturalist and artist role Brandenburg takes when photographing nature. He studies in detail the behaviors and life cycles of his subjects and this knowledge adds richness and depth to both his art and the viewer’s experience.