Of Clouds and Water
Water and clouds share an ability to transform light and color through reflection, absorption, diffusion, transmission. As such, they wield enormous power to affect our perceptions and emotions.
Clouds are never still. They transform themselves before our eyes. Each cloud scene presents a narrative that will change and never again exist in the same form, shape, color, light, temperature, atmosphere, texture, movement.
Water, the primary source of life, and on which clouds depend for their existence, is always poised at the edge of change. Will it become peaceful, turbulent, destructive, nourishing, reflective, salutary?
For the 16 images in this portfolio, the viewer must complete the narrative. What happens next? What would these images look like five minutes from now? or in three days? or next year?
Take for example Mekong Evensong (last image below), a peaceful, serene mountain in rural Laos, clothed in darkness because sunset has occurred. But wait - light reflecting on columnar clouds in the distance, rosy from the last rays of the sun setting behind the mountain, magically illuminates only the golden spires of the Buddhist monasteries clustered along the banks of the Mekong River. Scarcely three minutes later, all will be in darkness. But at this moment in time, in the late day silence, in seeing the golden spires, one can almost sense in the distant monasteries the sound of Buddhist monks chanting the evening prayer.
Drifting clouds in a late day sky over Chesapeake Bay shift color ranging from a delicate pink of the setting sun to dark gray of a recent storm.
Perspective and planes are unidentifiable in this straight photograph of an Icelandic dramatic waterfall and vapor observed from a green promintory in the foreground.
Dramatic bank of clouds hovers over the calm water of Chesapeake Bay in this photograph by Washington, DC, visual artist Karen Jordan.
A lone seabird in the distance makes its way across a moody seascape sky of dark clouds and blue sky above a textured Chesapeake Bay water with silvery bands of light appearing on the horizon, by Karen Jordan Images.
Against a deep blue sky on a quiet early morning a lone seabird flies over an expanse of choppy water, and I wonder where it is going. Up ahead, rays of sun magically break through an isolated, long, thin white cloud casting light and warmth beneath.
After a thunderstorm, a dark rain cloud hovers overhead, occasionally allowing bright late day sunlight to illuminate still choppy waves creating striking zones of contrasting light and dark in this moody black and white seascape.
Moody waterscape with a foggy morning sky over an expanse of open water of Chesapeake Bay, a bird perched atop a solitary piling in the middle distance.
Somewhere in Iceland, the lake is smooth, the dark grey mountains and grey clouds are far off in the distance and a lone fly fisherman casts his line and waits, photographer and visual artist Karen Jordan.
Evening clouds flow down hill above town of Akureyri in Northeast Iceland in this photograph by artist Karen Jordan of Washington, DC.
Inspired by the Biblical story of the Creation on Day 1, Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ... And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, Photographer Karen Jordan was moved to record dark waters of the sea and the sky separated by a band of orange sky.
Along the Mekong River in Laos, Buddhist temple spires appear like spiritual apparitions in the light of the setting sun, in this unmanipulated image byphotographic artist, Karen Jordan.
Striations of parallel sandbars formed by a very low tide during a Supermoon in Chesapeake Bay create a unique abstract seascape of channels of water.
Stark, nearly monochromatic Chesapeake Bay seascape of dramatic sky before impending storm, creating horizontal bands of light and dark water, sky and clouds.
The still surface of a luminous tidal pond reflects broken clouds overhead while branches and aquatic plants at edge appear to edge inward and frame a view that encompasses both near and far perspectives.
A glowing color field of pastel apricot and rosy hues at early dawn casts its luminous reflection on the calm water below.