Sitting behind a row of dyes I see the festival through a hidden window. The town is full of tourists, Yukoners and Dawsonites and I wonder what their vastly differing opinions might be as I explore the town, taking a collection of photographs for a project I’m working on. For myself, I love the architecture, the signs, and the beauty of surroundings haunted by the presence of history.
My impression is only slightly marred by my thoughts on the dredge tailings. The rugged stony piles left by the dredges as they rode up and down the valley in search of gold are tinted with sadness and sparse vegetation, roots isolated from the fertile earth buried meters below the rocky surface. It’s hard to imagine that this valley once fed upwards of 40,000 during it’s peak in 1898 (http://www.comeexplorecanada.com/yukon/dawson_city/).
Gazing through my camera I realize again the limitations of a lens. What is majestic can be reduced to ordinary when framed within a 4x6 frame and yet given the same perspective the mundane can become a beautiful story with the capturing of a moment, a thought or a look. I pause; my finger on the shutter, I consider. If the subject is intriguing to me, would interest others and what it is I’m trying to capture? And I’m struck by how much the same considerations apply to writing. What is the best angle to approach a story? What would interest the reader? Is the point of view that of the character in the story or my own?
A picture is a representation of the world captured, composed and shown purposely through the eye of the photographer, a story is a view of the world written or orated by the creator of the piece and told through the eyes of the narrator. And as writer I have to differentiate between the various viewpoints of my characters and my own perspective, picking the narration which best to displays what it is I want the reader to know.
Pictures:
Top - taken from the inside of the Tie Dye booth at Dawson Music Fest 2010, Dawson City, Yukon
Botton - Taken in the train shelter in Dawson City, Yukon.
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