Rich Rollins

 

Reed Canyon is not a large natural area. One can easily walk around it and leisurely explore all its offshoots in a half to three quarters of an hour. I have come to know it intimately over years of living close by and many walks through changing seasons and alterations to the landscape as a part of Reed College's environmental restorations. Although I know each twist and turn along the trail around the canyon, it is never twice the same. There are always new discoveries and the light of any given day can create transformations of the scenes encountered. I sometimes wonder if I will tire of my retreats there. Will I one day venture out into the canyon and find my experience there old, boring, uninteresting? To date, the answer is an appreciative "no". I still find myself an engaged wanderer and a curious photographer with an opportunity to make pictures in those moments that speak to me of what this place continually offers, an understanding of how the earth finds its peace and offers it to us as solace from our complicated, chaotic lives.