Archive All Issues January 2004

The Soft and Gentle Light of the Winter Solstice

Around December 22, the Earth tilts toward the sun at an angle that produces the "shortest day" and the delicate light that lures photographers and their cameras outside.

Featured in the January 2004 Issue of Arizona Highways

The morning sun plays across the spiky armament of cholla and saguaro cacti in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Rising abruptly in the background, the shadowed face of the Ajo Range provides a convergence of moody grandeur. The vermilion glow of sunset filtered through a receding storm paints the Mazatzal Mountains an eerie shade of winter in central Arizona.

BY: George Stocking

WINTER SOLSTICE

THE WINTER SOLSTICE IS that day of the year when the Earth's "tilt" relative to the sun makes the sun appear as far south in the sky as it can go. This axis tilt of our venerable planet creates the seasons, and in the northern hemisphere, around December 21 or 22, the sun makes its shortest arc across the sky, bringing the "shortest day" of the year and the first day of winter.

Virtually every ancient civilization, from the Druids to the Aztecs, placed significance on the day and celebrated the beginning of a new season and with it the rebirth of their natural world.

To me as a photographer-a cardcarrying member of a cult that worships light-the significance of this day is a little different. On and around the winter solstice, the sun's light has to penetrate more of Earth's atmosphere to reach the northern hemisphere. This soft southern light of the solstice finds nooks and crannies of the countryside that harsh summer sunshine fails to illuminate. Winter light flows like water over the deserts of the Southwest, revealing a softer and gentler-looking landscape. All the images in this portfolio were shot within a two-week period on either side of the winter solstice. Ан