From Peaks to Patinas: The Landscape of Awe with Tom Reed

Landscape photographer Tom Reed discusses his influences (Ansel Adams, Edgar Payne, the Hudson River School, and Japanese martial arts/aesthetics) and his books of photography—The Granite Avatars of Patagonia, Moved by a Mountain, and Summers in the Sierras.    Tom Reed delves into the ideas from his TEDx talk “Natural Beauty and Aesthetic Arrest,” describing aesthetic arrest—borrowed via Joseph Campbell from James Joyce—as being stunned by beauty to the point of losing the usual sense of self. He explores why eroded mountains can feel majestic, drawing on physicist Thomas Campbell’s ideas about organization versus entropy and linking organization to love. Reed connects his photography composition to Japanese tea ceremony and ikebana’s dominant/subdominant/subordinate principle, recounts quitting film photography after his camera was crushed, years of intense looking, wide travels (Caribbean, Belize, Alaska, Hawaii, California), near-drowning surfing in Oahu and how he finally returned to photography.    Tom lives in Fort Bragg on the rugged Mendocino Coast of Northern California, travels to wild places and spends five weeks each summer at a cabin he built in Alaska.    00:00 Introduction to Tom Reed, Landscape Photographer 01:53 Aesthetic Arrest 06:11 Inspiration from an Alpine View 08:19 Why Erosion Can Be Majestic 11:00 Japanese Aesthetics:  Ikebana and Chabana 12:23 Creating the Composition 13:46 Putting Yourself in the Right Position for the Composition 14:35 Principles of Flower Arranging as Applied to Photography 16:15 The Majesty of What Stands 16:35 What's Standing Is Still Organized 19:14 On Photography: The Cameras Got Heavy 21:54 In Belize with Birdie 28:24 The Artist's Impulse 29:36 Near-Death Experience Surfing the North Shore of Oahu 33:23 Raw Beauty That Inspires Awe 35:51 A Masculine Sense of Beauty 37:57 Leaving Hawaii 38:32 A Hobo Life with the Fall Colors in New England  40:44 Building a Cabin in Alaska 42:57 The Japanese Aesthetic 43:38 Aikido and Athletics 45:25 An Aikido Bum for 10 Years 47:01 Learning Tea Ceremony 47:43 Tea Ceremony and the Concept of Wabi-Sabi 49:46 Going to Japan 51:56 How to Contact Tom Reed   Tom’s Books The Granite Avatars of Patagonia Moved by a Mountain, Inspiration from an Alpine View in Alaska (also an audiobook, featured in Alaska Magazine and Cirque) The Other Side, On the Road in South America Summers in the Sierras (limited edition) Find these at https://TomReedBooks.com (not an affiliate link)   Tom’s TEDx Talk  "Natural Beauty and Aesthetic Arrest" (TEDxHomer, 2011) https://youtu.be/aB8L5a-P6NM?si=3-LmcdGe2EPJScBr   Contact Tom Reed https://tomreed.com https://tomreedbooks.com CREDITSHost and creator: Christi CassidyContact: [email protected] by Phyllis BusellMusic by Eve’s Blue. Post-production help from Auphonic.com.Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai. LINKS:More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.comPast episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram