Kate, Paw Paw, 2019

Kate, Paw Paw,2019

- from Little Worlds, 2019
I didn’t expect to be in this place as long as I have, but here I am. I married Leslie and raised my two children, Ben and Kate, and discovered and lived a life here. As they were growing up, I told my children stories, mostly at bedtime, about my life before moving to the mountains, as well as memories of my time here. And together we created fictions set in the past or a distant future. The stories were as much invention as real, a curious blend of fact and fantasy.

One story I told Kate—or imagine I told her—envisions our community in a future time, decades from now, when the world is a much different place. The land and people are familiar. Their story is the stuff of life— food and warmth, security, how we communicate and spend our time, our hopes and fears, how we define a life that is at once foreign, yet hidden in our memories. It’s a story we are still writing.

Please consider supporting the publication of Little Worlds through our pre-sale at the link below. In person purchases can be made by contacting me at <robambergphoto@gmail.com>. $55 plus tax.

The fundraiser:
https://www.robamberg.com/blog/2023/8/12/little-worlds-the-book

Little Worlds - Happy Days were here back then

-from Little Worlds, 2009

I overheard Leonard, one of our neighbors, say the other day, “Well, I guess we’re going to have to vote for that colored boy now.” It reminds me of how much things have changed, yet stayed the same, in the county. That local people would vote for a Black man for president while referring to him as a “colored boy” is enough to make my head spin. But change is elusive, and often forced, and in this case my neighbor would have voted differently had he felt he had a choice. But he would have never voted for a Republican.

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Little Worlds

Lesslie, Bit Pine, 1988

• from Little Worlds
  1988
  Ben and I move over to Leslie’s place, on the south face of our shared mountain. Laura and I are able to sell our thirty acres, and I use my part of the money to build a darkroom and studio a short walk from the house.
  Leslie and I marry in the spring and soon are expecting a child. It’s a happy time. We know the baby will be a girl. Her name will be Kate.
  The house and land are never-ending projects. We make house changes for the baby—replacing leaky windows, installing a spiral staircase to the upstairs where Ben sleeps.
  We’ve cleared more garden space by cutting trees and turning never-plowed ground. We fence in a pasture area awash with multiflora rose, briars, and small saplings, and turn a small herd of goats onto it. We don’t see them for days, but in time we’re left with a cleared field.

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Three from Italy

On our recent trip I was reminded how much I love train travel. The reminder happened quickly, about an hour after our departure from Letojanni, when the train was loaded onto a ferry for the short hop across the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. I know of no other place that does that.

Ferrying the train across the Strait of Messina, Sicily 2023

But beyond the uniqueness of trains on boats, travel by rail offers many amenities, especially compared to airplanes. Trains are comfortable, spacious really, easy to move around in. The countryside is immediate and available, so close it feels touchable - the Tyrrhenian Sea, Vesuvius, gritty Naples. And your fellow passengers are the same, close, willing to engage, share pictures of their children and ours with them. Ultimately, train travel becomes a welcome part of the journey, a story in itself - not another airport to dread with the crowds, the rush, the tension, so cramped you can barely cross your legs. Modern trains are fast, efficient but they feel slow and relaxed.

Leaving Sicily, 10/2023

Trains lull me. They place me in an unfamiliar dream where my vision abstracts to a mix of reality and fiction. I doze. I wake. I make a picture. I read. I walk to the club car and get an espresso. I make another picture, this one stranger than the last. I could do this forever.

Leaving Naples for Rome, 10/23.

https://www.robamberg.com/blog/2023/8/12/little-worlds-the-book

Little Worlds

The Little Worlds fundraiser is still under way. I want to thank the people who have generously contributed so far. We are closer to our goal of $35,000 than we were but still have a ways to go. So, if you’re inclined to purchase the book, or want to take advantage of one of the offered rewards, I’d encourage pre-ordering at the link below. Pre-order demand is a good indicator to the publisher about the number of books to print.Thank you for your interest.
https://www.robamberg.com/blog/2023/8/12/little-worlds-the-book

Home health nurse examining patient, George Roberts, in his home, Big Pine, 1984.

from Little Worlds, 1984
There is some work close to home. I make photographs for a story on rural health care with my friend Millie for a Durham-based journal, Southern Exposure. I spend a couple of days with a home health nurse with the Hot Springs Health Program as she travels the county, meeting with patients who are unable to leave home. It’s an innovative program and serves as a model for rural health care delivery around the country. For county residents it’s made excellent and dependable care available without having to drive to Asheville or east Tennessee.