A Slender Beacon

About this piece

A solitary lighthouse punctuates the long, low profile of a palm-lined island. Broad bands of turquoise water and pale sky frame the narrow shoreline, while warm light along the tower gives the distant structure a quiet prominence.

The story

From across the water, I watched the island resolve into a few spare elements: sand, palms, a roof, the slender lighthouse. The turquoise foreground kept drawing my eye, but it was the warm edge of the tower that held it. I framed the shoreline as a thin line between water and sky, leaving room for the distance itself. Even at this scale, the lighthouse gave the whole view a center.