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Annual Guide 2009: Cairns by Cairns |
Cairns by Cairns
To one photographer these land marks are more than a pile of rocks
Left: A Pitchoff Mountain cairn. From top to bottom: Scene from the summit of Big Crow Mountain. Near the top of Algonquin Peak.
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Let's get the obvious out of the way: Stewart Cairns indeed shares his surname with his subject matter of choice, but he says, "If my last name were Smith I'd still be interested in them."
The 40-year-old freelance photographer says his initial fascination with these pyramid-shape trail markers started as a child, when he and his family hiked the Adirondacks. Now he sees the handmade stacks as "lichen-encrusted beacons… stone testaments to people's ongoing relationship with the landscape."
Though Cairns is based in Albany, where he photographs primarily for media outlets such as the Associated Press and The New York Times, it's the Adirondack Park where he began shooting and where he often returns —his parents have a second home in Ray Brook —and explores the natural world. See more of Cairns's cairns and his other work at www.stewartcairns.com.
Left: Adirondack architecture on Algonquin Peak.
From top to bottom: Atop Algonquin, with views of Boundary Peak and Wallface Mountain.
A Treadway Mountain cairn.
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