BETWEEN THE SHADOWS, BY ANNABEL LAKE

The Dolomites never hold still. One moment the sun is beaming on my neck, and in a quick moment the clouds are rolling in thick and fast. I can feel the rumble of thunder approaching.

I don’t shoot film very often, but when I do, it’s a process I enjoy. You’re forced to pause, focus, check the light, assess composition—observe—slow down.

Between the Shadows — by Annabel Lake.

In Val Gardena there are stretches of trail where there are chatter of ramblers, clinking of walking poles and scuffling of walking boots. I take a turn, climb a bit and the noise just drops away. It’s just me, the hum of my breathing, the grazing of cows, and the whisper of a breeze. Things felt clearer, lighter, emptier. Blissful.

I was up on Seceda and the air felt transient and unpredictable. A blanket of mist wrapped itself around the peak. I could hardly see the path ahead. I was bummed initially but my mental state shifted. It’s a privilege to experience the sublime in a different light. In a world saturated with sameness and homogenised perfection, it felt rare to capture and share the other side of the coin.

I begin to look for moments between the shadows, between the noise and the stillness, between what’s seen and reflected. The sky becomes the mountain peaks, the mountain peaks become the water, the water becomes the trees. Through my lens, I found not contrast, but the peace that holds both.

Shooting film paradoxically feels both ephemeral as it is permanent. Unfortunately these negatives, all 180 frames of them, never made it back to me from the lab. They’ll continue to exist between the shadows of my memories and the pixels on my screen.