Escaping Noise
“What we want to gain is tranquility and rest to the mind”
- Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the designers of Central Park, famously said, “[The beauty of the park] should be the beauty of the fields, the meadow, the prairie, of the green pastures, and the still waters. What we want to gain is tranquility and rest to the mind.” He understood our need to escape noise.
I doubt he could have imagined the kind of noise we contend with today. It was 1870, after all, and “social” hadn’t been invented yet. No one was being bombarded by a 24/7 newsfeed. And when they did read the news, they could trust—at least with some certainty—that it hadn’t been generated by a machine.
So even though I’m constantly in awe of the beauty of one of the world’s greatest parks, I often find myself unable to escape the noise, as Olmsted intended, even while standing beneath his trees.
My desire is to create artistic images, but I also hope the work offers me something quieter—an easing of the mind. I like to think each goal can serve the other. And if anyone viewing these photographs can catch even a brief moment of rest from the noise of their own lives (and their feeds), then perhaps I’ll have made Mr. Olmsted proud, and restored, in some small way, a bit of what he envisioned when shaping this magnificent park.