Photo Essay
I
by Kevin Bishop
n a place where Christmas day is
often balmy and New Year’s is as
likely to be sunny and 60 degrees
as cold and grey, the rare winter storm
can be a delight to the senses. When a
front rolls into the Big Bend, hugging the
mountains and creeping with its freezing
fog through all the nooks and crannies of
the landscape, the desert is brought to
life. Every leaf, fence wire and cactus
thorn is outlined in crystal.
Colors are washed away, leaving stark
blacks and whites against a backdrop of
muted gray sky.
In bygone days, when photographs
themselves were a luxury, most of the
pictures of our little towns were taken on
days such as this, when a rare winter
12
Cenizo
Winter 2020
storm transformed the landscape of
everyday into a spectacular canvas.
A profusion of perfect crystals grows on
a chain-link fence. The wind plays fractal
games with the trees, forming a beautiful
chaos of perfect miniature icicles on
every branch. Cacti sleep under a perfect
cap of winter, every thorn perfectly
coated.
And Twin Peaks presides over Alpine,
softened and lovely in her winter cloak.
We aren’t blessed every year with
winter’s display, but the relative rarity of
ice in the Big Bend makes it all the more
breathtaking. How much more precious
would diamonds be if they melted away
in a day?