Currently on exhibit at Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA.
Sheep return from a day of munching the tidal marsh around Mont-St-Michel. This impressive island was revered for thousands of years as a natural sacred site. Mont-Tombe oratory church was built in AD 708. A Benedictine abbey was founded in 966 which was depicted in the 1067 Bayeux Tapestry. Mont-St-Michel was a renowned center of medieval learning and the major pilgrimage destination along the 12th century Grande Rue, the route of miquelots. Proclaimed a national monument in 1874, restoration began with a causeway built over the tidal sand. Benedictine monks returned in 1969 and the island was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Today, modern pilgrims are drawn to this impressive Benedictine monastery and Romanesque fortified abbey crowned by a gilded statue of Archangel St. Michael.
For this image, I stayed in the area for a week, scouting along the coast for tidal access. Somewhere in my National Geographic childhood memory was a photo of this island with sheep. This year, there were no sheep anywhere, besides on menus. On the last afternoon as I was heading back to my hotel, I pulled off for one last photo. Suddenly sheep appeared, trotting right towards me, driven by a Border Collie and kids on a ATV. I snapped as the sheep snatched at grass before being herded through a gate and across the road. They were gone in moments, but, right place, right time, I was “f16 and be there”, the National Geo motto for their photographers.
Places of Presence Series
Fine Art Photography Print on archival photo paper gold metal framed 20×26
