About

A Sense of the Place
​​​​​​​This collection of photographs is about natural places, especially those where the place itself carries an implication of stillness. If I am successful the photographs present suggestions of a quiet importance more than might be recognized at first glance, suggestions of a world outside the frame, perhaps a sense of time which proceeds independently of our own fate.  The feeling of the place, a sense of it, is what I seek in my photographs.   
"All of my pictures are optically very accurate–I use pretty good lenses–but they are quite unrealistic in terms of values. A more realistic simple snapshot captures the image but misses everything else. I want a picture to reflect not only the forms but what I had seen and felt at the moment of exposure."
—Ansel Adams
As for me, I'm not a photographer, really.  I don't do weddings, news, travel, portraits,  sports or commercial work although I admire those who do.  I wander around in natural landscapes with a camera, thinking seriously about what Icelander Pêtur Gunnarsson said, that on Earth's part, all days start beautifully. We older camera folks, most of us, no longer have the experience of watching with fingers crossed as an image we envisioned in the field slowly reveals itself in the developer tray. The experience is on-screen now and not the same (although in many ways better), but the experience of being out there seeking to see ways of acknowledging and honoring Earth's part is not changed at all, at least for me. Yes, the technical craft is immensely easier but the experience, the art-making if you will, of taking and making photographs is as gratifying and privileged as ever. When out early with a camera, all days start beautifully.
I'm a T-shirt winning amateur in northern California.  The photos here were taken in varied terrain throughout the western part of the USA but most were taken close to home. They are roughly organized by similarity of place.
Charlie Judson
Sebastopol, California
January 2024
In his book, The Memory of Place, author Dylan Trigg suggests there are Places which are fundamental to our sense of self and Non-Places which are not. Places are those with meaning, shaped by our individual history, and could include our home, our parents' home, church, possibly our workplace, and importantly, places we go for inspiration and happiness. Non-Places are the opposite and don't have meaning. They tend to the homogenous and are interchangeable, like airports, supermarkets, the DMV. 
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