“Lux” means a unit of illumination. While exploring the grounds of an art museum, my attention fixed immediately on the strands of light bulbs strung throughout the wooded paths and manicured grounds. I once attended a workshop on black and white printing for the traditional (wet) darkroom. When I showed a print that I had made from a negative taken at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, a print of a small tree with its beautiful black shadow, a tree struggling to survive in all that white sand, the instructor said, “That would be a good photo if you didn’t have the jet trails in it.” I had not even noticed the faint whitish trails in the sky above the tree. You see, nature photographers abhor the traces of man’s activities within their pristine frames. My nature, on the contrary, is too urban to ignore humanity’s “footprints,” whether as trails or on trails. Hence the bulbs bobbing within this landscape. I wonder why they’re there—for nighttime soirees, perhaps?--and I’m intrigued that they’re there. What do you think about their presence in these images?

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