Nature Trumps Civilization

Walk at Night
President Bush and Australia's Governor-General Michael Jeffery stroll the grounds of Admiralty House in Sydney prior to the beginning of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.





The first thing that captivated me about this photo was the massive tree in the center where the branches seemed to reach endlessly outside the frame of the photo. The fact that this tree is my focus of attention and not the two world leaders beneath its shadow or the distant echos of civilization in its background epitomizes the triumph of nature over humanity. With an initial glance of this photograph, the studium (denotative meaning) would be two men taking a stroll under a tree with a city behind them. Upon reading the caption, the studium evolves with more detail, President Bush and Australia's governor taking a stroll in Sydney before an economic conference. The new knowledge of their power does not change my perception of the photo...they are still overshadowed by the enormity of the tree. The punctum, connotative meaning,eludes to something deeper, a deeper truth that illustrates no matter what heights civilization attains it will always be subject to and held in awe by the mystery of nature.

The tree is the highest structure in the photograph, dwarfing the two leaders who reign below and the entire city behind it with quiet power and dignity. Its placement at the forefront of the photograph allows it dominance over the picture and even when I looked at the dazzling city of Sydney in the background and at the pensive expressions of the two men walking, my eyes always wandered back to that tree, fixated on the allure it emanated, and how it made all man made objects pale in comparison. The only illumination in the picture is found mostly near or in the branches of the tree, reflecting how enlightenment in that transition to a higher plane of spirituality will always come from nature and never from the adulterated efforts of man.

The myth that this photo propagates is the power of something greater that will always hold dominion over us and in a nation that was founded on Christianity, this higher power could mean God, not just nature. Two of the most powerful men in the world are reduced to items of insignificance as they are humbled by the gentle ferocity of the ethereal. The city is immersed in darkness, the only source of light, of hope is found in the tree, a microcosm of the pull of the otherworldly.