Standing on the Shoulders of Hudson River School

The Hudson River School, a 19th century art movement, was comprised of a group of talented landscape artists who were all about nature on a grand scale. To me, they are the true forerunner of today’s landscape photographers. Their portrayal of nature was both idyllic and powerful. Two things I learned from this movement.. First, I think artists of this movement enjoyed showing humans and nature coexisting, though many of this painting were just of nature. Second, once again the use of light and composition is magic in these paintings. These artists accentuated the key focus with light yet left did not leave the dark areas blank. For example, while the eye feast was the mountains in the distance lit by glorious light, there were interesting nibbles around the darker areas.

Steven and I enjoy taking pictures of beautiful beach scenes, mountain overviews or waterfalls but, to me, there is an additional level of emotion when people are joined with these.

I find Steven’s picture of the ladies at this overlook reminiscent of The Hudson River School style.