On that ageless island, time seemed to pass so slowly that stillness seemed the only conclusion to time itself. It was a place where to listen to the cry of a tern or haunting echo of a wintering loon, or to gaze on the chiaroscuro of dark marsh grasses and silver water in the evening, was to experience the profundity of an unwavering world held fast in the sentience of sound and water and wind.
I wish I could pour that moody countryside and friendly people into your hearts, but the atmosphere, being beyond words, I offer a few more images...
There were many water lilies (Lotus) in fresh water ponds. The print you see to the left is a color slide printed on black and white paper.
As one approached the village of Cedar Island from the South on NC Highway 12, I noticed this abandoned storefront. The print has been sepia toned.
I discovered this graying dock (below) stretching out into Pamlico Sound.
"Jigs" was passing through also, staying at the same campground. He played a great guitar.
This railroad crossing on the "Down East" peninsula near Cedar Island intrigued me with its hint of magic and mystery. I kept waiting for a unicorn or other mythical animal to appear in the distant haze.
Eventually, I caught the ferry and rode for for almost three hours across Pamlico Sound to Ocracoke Island where I pitched my tent that night on a small dune overlooking the gray Atlantic in a near Arctic gale that seemed almost hurricane force in its intensity.
Somehow, the tent and I survived the night. The next day I straightened out the tent, and trying to keep my hands from freezing, loaded Kodak 35mm Tri-X into my ancient Nikon and began photographing in black and white the startling tones and rare shadings of the Outer Banks.
But that's another story. . .
Editor's Note: Not the least of the reasons that these barrier islands, known as the Outer Banks, are famous is that the Wright Brothers chose those high, windy dunes for the first flight of a self-propelled airplane in 1903. The Outer Banks are also famous (among many other things) for the Lost Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, as well as the lair and legendary burial place of the infamous eighteenth century pirate, Blackbeard.
Almost all the photographs are taken by me and are copyright 2002, Thomas James Martin. I did take the liberty of using two stock photos of local scenes (Tidal River and Old Dock) that seemed to capture the mood of the locale better than some of my own.
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