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Uncanny Lake Pontchartrain photos spontaneously taken over the years conjure both memory and mystery. Even though I’ve lived here in Slidell, Louisiana for more than 20 years, it still feels like I am someplace else.
The lake — really a 630 square mile estuary, feeds out to the gulf through the nearby Rigolets strait. It’s one of the largest wetlands along the North American Gulf Coast covering more than 125,000 acres. To visualize the the size, it looks like an ocean from the Four Seasons Hotel in New Orleans 30th floor observatory at Canal Street and the Mississippi River. Happily, my view from home and from nearby boat trips has been more intimate.
Bridge, piers, boats and the city skyline connect the human relationship to nature. The city skyline photo under a swirl of gold and orange painted-looking twilight sky shows proximity to New Orleans across the water, but from this angle my hometown seems unrecognizable. Another, almost abstract photo of the twin spans bridge from behind shadowed oak branches over blue water and an orange sky, evokes a calm Where am I? stillness. The photo of a crab boat approaching a sailboat reminds me of the time my fast-thinking husband boated out to rescue a couple on a sinking pontoon boat. After towing them in we had the couple over for drinks. The last image shows straw remnants of a bird’s nest and a hand painted pier sign that reads “No Wake.” This message for boats to slow down has a deeper meaning for me.
I returned to Louisiana after 9/11 from Manhattan. To share these images of my new way of life now feels like a dream.
The lake — really a 630 square mile estuary, feeds out to the gulf through the nearby Rigolets strait. It’s one of the largest wetlands along the North American Gulf Coast covering more than 125,000 acres. To visualize the the size, it looks like an ocean from the Four Seasons Hotel in New Orleans 30th floor observatory at Canal Street and the Mississippi River. Happily, my view from home and from nearby boat trips has been more intimate.
Bridge, piers, boats and the city skyline connect the human relationship to nature. The city skyline photo under a swirl of gold and orange painted-looking twilight sky shows proximity to New Orleans across the water, but from this angle my hometown seems unrecognizable. Another, almost abstract photo of the twin spans bridge from behind shadowed oak branches over blue water and an orange sky, evokes a calm Where am I? stillness. The photo of a crab boat approaching a sailboat reminds me of the time my fast-thinking husband boated out to rescue a couple on a sinking pontoon boat. After towing them in we had the couple over for drinks. The last image shows straw remnants of a bird’s nest and a hand painted pier sign that reads “No Wake.” This message for boats to slow down has a deeper meaning for me.
I returned to Louisiana after 9/11 from Manhattan. To share these images of my new way of life now feels like a dream.
