Winter Vignette

Driving south out of Gates Mills after a major snowmelt one late afternoon in January, fog was beginning to settle over the Chagrin River and eastern escarpment.

Rounding a curve on River Road I glimpsed a distant copse of young sycamores, their winter’s bark white as alabaster. With no opportunity to get fully off the road, I pulled to the shoulder, rolled the window down with just enough time for one shot before traffic arrived. Maples and oaks in the foreground obscured a full view of the sycamores, however, serendipitously they had served as an unintentional vignette.

Addendum: If nothing else, this image with its natural vignette, gives me an opportunity to comment on its too-often contrived use in photography. Vignettes have dominated photography almost singularly as an art medium, perhaps because of their ease of use but likely more as a “trope-like” means to spotlight a subject, often to compensate for poor composition. This has been especially true of photographic portraiture as the technique was roundly exploited by the mid-nineteenth century. Of related historic note, “Cartomania” (Carte de Visite), a photographic technique that added vignettes to portraits, became a Victorian craze by the 1860s, inspired by earlier drawings of little vines and tendrils used to add mystery and moodiness by highlighting small illustrations for chapter headings in books.

So much for my antipathy for vignettes and my self-indulging critique! Yet another grievance to manage in these dystopian times.

Year: 2026
Location: Gates Mills, Ohio
Collector’s Edition of 10
Dimensions: 16.5" x 11"