In the Silence of the Wall
As a Maryland-based photographer, Washington has always been in my backyard and remains one of my favorite cities to explore with a camera. I have wandered the city countless times over the years, but the memorials and monuments always pull me back, especially after dark when the crowds thin out and the city settles into silence.
Several years ago, I found myself in the city on business during a cold December weekend. The air had that biting chill that always settles deep into your coat. By evening, many of the streets around the National Mall had become empty. In a city like Washington, that kind of stillness, even at night, is rare.
With the business day behind me and dusk falling on the city, I bundled up, grabbed my camera and monopod, and headed out for a bite to eat. Dinner was had at the Old Ebbitt Grill. Fortified with warm soup and coffee, I ventured back out into the cold for a few hours of photography.
Staying along the east side of the National Mall, I eventually found my way, like I always do, to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
This has always been my favorite memorial in the city, especially at night. The black wall. The white names. The silence that fills the walkway. Even in the heart of Washington, the memorial somehow creates its own sense of isolation and reflection.
Although I have no direct family ties to the Vietnam War, this memorial has always called to me and haunted me since it was erected. There is something about the scale of the wall and the endless rows of names that has always stayed with me. Especially at night, when the polished black granite seems to disappear into the darkness.
My goal that evening was to capture small sections of the wall while still preserving the vastness of the memorial itself. I wanted the edges of the frame to fall away into blackness while the center clarity focused on individual names emerging from the stone. Only a very small amount of fill flash was used to illuminate the wall and lettering while preserving the darkness and atmosphere of the scene.
As I walked along the wall that evening, what stayed with me most was not the scale of the memorial itself, but the individual names illuminated against the black granite. One name after another disappearing into the darkness.
___
Technical Notes:
All images were captured with a Canon DSLR and Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens using a monopod for stability in the low light conditions. A small amount of fill light was provided using the camera’s built-in Speedlite with the output dialed back to preserve the darkness and atmosphere of the memorial. The images were processed in Lightroom with a black-and-white conversion, slight vignette, texture and clarity enhancements, and noise reduction applied to maintain the mood and texture of the original scene. The images are presented in a 3:2 aspect ratio.
