Photography is poetry—the synthesis of emotion, thought, the senses, and their connection to the soul. The intensity of this, for Anne Macleod Weeks, culminates in walking the coast, alone, sometimes with her dogs. The varied textures of rock, sand, water, wind, grass, fog, and trees provide the rhyme and metre, the structure of the form that condenses the greater message—an escape from isolation and despair. The predictability of tides, the caress of wind, the fortitude of trees, the rejuvenation of sand and rock give her hope.

 

Decades of visualizing the poetry she taught to advanced students, from Plath to Frost to Shelley to Hayden, brought Ms. Macleod Weeks to the art of seeing poetry in the landscapes surrounding her. She has challenged herself by limiting her tools to a cell phone camera and only minor editing, fueled by the desire to capture reality, to draw in the raw emotion of the viewer.

 

Each photo is about belief—belief in the power of nature to fuel the power of humanity; to provide pathways to health and well-being through an emotional connection; to remind us we are a part of a greater form, whether in the country or in the city.

 

Her inspiration comes from Eliot Porter, Andrew Wyeth, Raymond Martheleur, and Lynn Farrell.

 

Anne Macleod Weeks’ roots run deep in Nova Scotia. The daughter of a man who desperately wanted to escape the solitude of Cape Breton, which he described as “nothing but rocks and bunnies,” she was raised in the United States with an emphasis on community immersion and the power of the written word. Throughout her life teaching on boarding school campuses, she yearned for periods of solitude and reflection, and only by returning to Nova Scotia, has she found what feels like home.