Black and White Vintage & Digital Prints I
Lake On Lake Ranch, Point Reyes National Seashore, California
Lake On Lake Ranch, View Out to Sea, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, 1962. Eliot Porter's "In Wildness Is The Preservation Of The World" with quotes from Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and the first edition of Philip Hyde's "Island In Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula" all came out the same year, 1962. Eliot Porter, Philip Hyde and other wilderness photographers for the Sierra Club had begun to publishing color photographs in Sierra Club publications with encouragement from Executive Director and Editor David Brower. The transition to color was under way and would soon surpass other trends in landscape photography. "In Wildness" contained all color plates, while "Island In Time" was still a mix of color photographs and black and white. Philip Hyde was a master of both mediums, while Eliot Porter focused on color. The original edition of "Island In Time" helped in the campaign to establish the National Seashore. "Point Reyes and its Atlantic Coast counterpart, Cape Cod National Seashore, were the first units of the National Park System to be created by Government purchase of private property. Previous parks had been carved out of the public domain, or like nearby Muir Woods National Monument, had been received as gifts." Today Drakes Beach has more fences, signs and regulations. At the edge of the parking lot signs warn of no lifeguard on duty and that samples are taken "weekly to determine if the water quality is acceptable for water contact recreation. For information contact Marin County Beach Hotline: earth911.org." Another sign reads, "WARNING: Oiled Birds and other marine life may wash ashore due to an oil spill that occurred in San Francisco Bay on Wednesday November 7, 2007." A third sign reads, "Warning: A Mussel quarantine order has been established by the California State Department of Public Health and is effective in Marin County. Mussels may contain poison unfit for human food. Label should also state, 'For fish bait only. Do not feed to pets.'" Welcome to Pt. Reyes National Seashore. Walking on the once pristine beach, trudge through toxic sludge and foam, breath deeply and notice that the ocean smells a little too salty.
