More thoughts after my trip to Sun Valley, Idaho...It was an amazing place. There were tons of hiking and biking trails, and everywhere I went there were athletes out, hammering away at their workouts, their fit and finely-tuned bodies looking nearly as beautiful and perfect as the natural world through which they moved.
I could happily live in that part of Idaho...but on second thought, I bet not. I came away feeling that Sun Valley must be a terribly expensive place to live, that Ketchum and Stanley and Hailey are the kinds of mountain towns that have become playgrounds for the rich and famous. The houses and ranches I saw just reeked of affluence, and there were nearly as many Hummers as humans.
Not my style at all.
I had a few hours free one afternoon during my trip and I walked around the town of Ketchum and looked for photographs that conveyed a sense of the valley. I made a few images of the beautiful mountains, and of cool, billowy clouds moving across the landscape. But I couldn’t help but also photograph the bling and belongings of the humans around me, and the trappings of wealth and good fortune.
I am not wealthy, but I came home and made a donation to Amnesty International, and intend also to send a check to Doctors Without Borders. This feels like an important gesture for me to make, the least I can do.
