Quiet Sound

I spent my first few visits to Steilacoom, simply being with the Village of my childhood. I sat on Sunnyside beach, deep in pebbles for long, lazy summer afternoons. I noticed the beautiful light, the distant sound of the small ferry moving back and forth from the islands that dot the Sound to Steilacoom’s small dock, listened to water gently lapping the beach in its rhythmic, hypnotic way, and heard, in the distance, the frequent trains lumbering along the railroad tracks that snake along the coastline, often signaling their approach with their melancholy sound. Even as a child, I was dazzled when, on clear days, Mount Rainier hovered like a giant ice cream cone over our Village.

By allowing this sitting, dreaming time, I slowly opened to a deeper resonance of place allowing childhood memories to wash over me.

Two generations of my family made Steilacoom their home. This beautiful village sitting on the shores of Puget Sound remains the quiet Village of my childhood and my mother’s childhood. Changes come slowly to this beautiful, sleepy village and to me this is a gift.

These pinhole photographs were made with a deep sense of place. My hope is that you, the viewer, gain a sense of Quiet Sound from entering these images, and perhaps even glimpse the soul of place.