Behind The shot With Peggy Becker

One photographer. One image. The story behind the shot.

The salty mist was still hanging low against the ground when I set out for the salt marsh in Martha’s Vineyard. I had my camera but who knows whether the sun would burn off enough haze to create that magic of the early morning. Still, silent and alone with my thoughts.

I poked along the tall grasses and felt the grief of what might become of this lovely landscape with rising seas and warming world. I tried to push those thoughts away. No luck. With a heavy heart I moved along but began to see the mist rising – ahh, it would be one of those lovely mornings where mist meets memory. The joy of seeing life through my lens was the balm I needed to shove feelings of sadness aside for the moment.

I knew I would have less than an hour to catch the light so I began framing shots – first in my mind and then through the lens. A delightful landscape—undulating shore and silver-toned sea grasses emerged before the sun was too far above the horizon. Then a bright reflection of the rising sun was framed by an inlet where the dew sparkled off the marsh plants.

The sun always seems to rise too quickly and the magic would soon be lost. But that day I found one last image—a spider’s web held in the spotlight. It compelled me to confront my grief. My silent elegy on the impending loss of the marsh transformed into an ode on the assurance of life that clings to every possible hope just as the tiniest silk threads held tenaciously to the sturdy stems around it.

My heart feels lighter now as I think of the web and the spiders creating natural wonders. Even when I walk in the marsh on dark days or see the destruction of our natural world—by turns swept away in a violent storm or lost almost imperceptibly by degrees—I remember the hope I felt on that quiet day.

Peggy Becker's relationship with photography started at age five, standing on a stool in her father's darkroom watching images appear in the developer tray. She has never quite gotten over it. Largely self-taught, her work has taken her from her backyard to other continents, from family portraits to commercial assignments, always driven by the same two things that hooked her in that darkroom. Light and life. Her current projects focus on documenting the natural world and the cultures and places that are changing faster than most of us want to acknowledge. When she is not making photographs she is giving them away, donating her services to food pantries, children's organizations, and breast cancer advocacy groups in her community.

You can follow her work at www.pbeckerphoto.com