Behind the piece: Hope Springs (2025) is finding pause and renewal through fine art photography
Hope Springs (2025)
My serene fine art photograph captured on a natural hiking trail in Santa Barbara, CA, inspired by Wang Wei’s “Deer Park” poem
Every fine art photograph I create begins with a quiet intention: to seek pause. Before I step behind the camera, there is often a spark that shapes the work—a book, a memory, or a fleeting glimmer of light.
A Wang Wei original painting with an accompanying poem
For my Infrared Dreams collection, that spark arrived one afternoon at the Culver City Library, where I discovered The Selected Poems of Wang Wei, translated by David Hinton. Wang Wei (701-761 C.E.), a Tang Dynasty poet and painter, precedes known names and writers like Henry David Thoreau. His life balanced noble positions in court with long periods of solitude in the mountains, where he found his truest fulfillment. His poems and landscape paintings were inseparable, each one serving as a companion to the other.
Wang Wei’s way of living, attuned to stillness and fleeting beauty in nature, resonated deeply with me. Infrared Dreams was born out of that influence, an attempt to capture the same vulnerability and transcendence that emerges when we allow ourselves to simply be present in the landscape.
That ethos carries forward in Hope Springs, a photograph made along a trail in Santa Barbara in May 2023. What first drew me in was the quiet presence of an empty bench, but it was the glimmer of light beyond it that held me still.
Months later, when I was evacuated during the Eaton Fire, this image revealed a new layer of meaning. What once felt like a simple meditation on stillness became something more urgent. The photograph speaks to loss and renewal, to the way everything material can vanish in an instant, yet hope persists. There is a serene emptiness in Hope Springs that mirrors what it feels like to stand in the aftermath of destruction, holding on to nothing but the belief that what comes next can be rebuilt.
Through this work, I am reminded that fine art photography is not only about capturing landscapes but also about translating moments of resilience, presence, and quiet wonder. In Hope Springs, light, emptiness, and hope coexist, offering space to pause, reflect, and trust in renewal.
Edition: 1-of-1
Year: 2025
Medium: Archival pigment print in walnut frame with brass title plate under UV glass
Dimensions: 30" W x 44" H x 1” D
Signed on verso
May Hope Springs wherever you land.
This exclusive piece is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.
Ready to ship with professional packaging and full insurance coverage.
A special commission for Pasadena Showcase House 2025 with interior designer, Rebecca Hansen.
Dedicated to all those impacted by the Eaton Fire in Altadena and Pasadena, CA.
Exhibited in the Brand 53 at the renowned Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale, CA.
