The Bear Mountain Bridge, the Jewel of the Hudson: Embracing Place

Walter Rabetz is an artist who uses the photographic medium to explore a variety of conceptual issues. This particular book is the culmination of four years of devotion to the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River in New York, and its immediate environs. Photographing both the bridge, and views from the bridge, at all hours of the day, and in all weather throughout the year, Rabetz has decisively and passionately delineated the extraordinary grandeur of the Hudson River Highlands and their relationship to this very welcoming and lovely bridge. "Some of the most stirring images in this series were made during twilight visitations. These nocturnal creations were enhanced by the use of subtle color zones and points of light that glowed and illuminated the darkened territory, where land, water and bridge meet. Rabetz?s heightened sensitivity to waning light, allowed him to create a very special set of spectral images, worthy of Turner?s most impressionistic interpretations of naval encounters and marine-scapes. There, as in Rabetz?s photographs, atmospheric illumination is everything. Rabetz?s nocturnal work is sometimes visible only as a subtle glow within a darkened space, announcing the coming of night, as it rushes in to consume everything."- Siegfried Halus, photographer, Santa Fe. NM.