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From
the Back Cover --
The Wissahickon section of
Fairmount Park in Philadelphia is a six mile long forested gorge through
which runs the eponymous creek, named by the Lenni Lenape Indians, who
hunted and fished there long ago. In colonial times settlers constructed
low dams to power mills. Steam power supplanted water and the mills were
torn down, but several of the dams remain. Later a carriage road was
built along the creek with inns dotting its length. Ever since, the
gorge has been a favorite spot for walkers, equestrians, fishermen and
cyclists to exercise and enjoy the outdoors. Laurie Cameron has spent
three years running, walking, biking and cross-country skiing the trails
of the Wissahickon with his point-and-shoot camera tucked in a pocket.
His images capture the timeless and mysterious qualities of the place as
the weather and the light pass through. You are invited to dream along
through the seasons of the Wissahickon.
About the Author,
Laurie Cameron began amateur
photography in 1957 while in the U.S. Army. After finishing college
he attended
a workshop course taught by the noted photographer Harold Feinstein
(100 Flowers). He continued taking 35 mm
black and white photographs in Philadelphia and in West Virginia,
where he moved in 1971. During the West Virginia years he shot
landscapes and took pictures of family and friends.One landscape won
a Governor’s
Purchase Award at the biennial State juried art show. From 1985
until 2000 Cameron suspended his hobby. Toward the end of that
period he began running on the Wissahickon trails and noticed the
landscape possibilities which the park afforded. He bought a small
point-and shoot camera to carry with him on his runs and enrolled in
a digital imaging course at Philadelphia Community College. In 2001
he entered some Wissahickon images in the Friends of the
Wissahickonbiennial photo contest and won first place in the
landscape category. Some months later he was given a one-person show
at the Allens Lane Art Center and that work became the nucleus of
this book.
Laurie Cameron
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