Absurdity, Allegory and China

There is nothing quiet so dramatic as the seasonal journey of a lotus pond: the rising up from muck in the summer heat; the outrageous, near-brashness of the flowering, the floppy leaves like mainsails catching the least breeze; and the inevitable collapse in the low-angled light of autumn, adding a remarkable physicality to the season of Fall, another victory for gravity and decomposition.

I am not a guy who normally takes photos of plants and flowers. Nothing against them, mind you. It’s just not something I am up to snuff on. But I am a sucker for Chinese lotus ponds in late September and early October.

So here are a few shots from a walk through Qinghua (Tsinghua) University yesterday, September 24, 2010. Nothing quite tells the story like the beautiful wreckage of a lotus pond at the warm season’s end as hints of approaching winter begin to test us early in the morning.

(I shot these photos with the white balance set for fluorescent light, which allows for the blue filtering effect. Click the pic for a larger photo.)