One late spring evening I was in Wales when my car broke down; there was a plume of hazy, white steam emerging from the engine. A mechanic, who must have been over eighty years old, was called out to patch up a piece of pipe that had become perforated. He was a colourful character, telling me to “take it nice and steady” on the drive back.
The next morning, on my careful journey home, I felt impelled to take photographs as I drove through the landscape I was leaving. The clouds were brushing Snowdonia’s blue mountaintops and the shards of glinting light gave the scene a strange, otherworldly quality, only ever seen in early morning. But I had to concentrate, taking it “nice and steady” through miles of resting pine trees, so that I could get home before the engine gave up again.
Despite my desire, I took no photographs that morning, and this is the pipe that thwarted that desire.
One late spring evening I was in Wales when my car broke down; there was a plume of hazy, white steam emerging from the engine. A mechanic, who must have been over eighty years old, was called out to patch up a piece of pipe that had become perforated. He was a colourful character, telling me to “take it nice and steady” on the drive back.
The next morning, on my careful journey home, I felt impelled to take photographs as I drove through the landscape I was leaving. The clouds were brushing Snowdonia’s blue mountaintops and the shards of glinting light gave the scene a strange, otherworldly quality, only ever seen in early morning. But I had to concentrate, taking it “nice and steady” through miles of resting pine trees, so that I could get home before the engine gave up again.
Despite my desire, I took no photographs that morning, and this is the pipe that thwarted that desire.