Road through mountains with snow and pine trees
Deserts,  Mountains,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

Gallery: on the road to the future?

January 10, 2022 / 52 Comments

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

Jean de La Fontaine

I cannot, of course, photograph the future. I could perhaps take photos of futuristic sights and buildings, but they would still be very much of the present.

Signpost with mountains behind
Signpost near our hotel in the Torres del Paine NP, Chile

Looking for inspiration for this week’s Sunday Stills theme of the future, I turned as I often do to quotations, and the one above leapt out at me. People often talk about the future in terms of a road we are travelling, don’t they? And we also often talk about choosing a path or road, making a decision to go this way or that. We say we are ‘at a cross-roads’ or at a fork in the road.

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But in truth we can’t know what lies ahead down any of those roads, so our decisions are at best educated guesses as to which would be the best option. In the end we have to trust our instincts and just get moving!

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So for my look at the future I decided to look back at some roads I have travelled and photographed. Each of these took me somewhere special, somewhere that made an impression on me and shaped how I see the world. And maybe it’s only by reflecting on past journeys that we can make those decisions that shape our future path?

Anyway, that’s my excuse for choosing this particular compilation of shots as a response to this challenge! Will our future paths lead us through deserts, perhaps, or mountains, or on busy city streets? And will we have some stairs to climb along the way? Who knows what the future holds, but all of these are in my past …

Desert roads

On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair

Hotel California, The Eagles
Straight road in a desert with mountains on the horizon

Road through the Atacama Desert, Chile

Straight road in a desert with a road sign

Road into the Empty Quarter, Oman

Sand dunes with car in the distance

The track through the dunes, Wahiba Sands, Oman

Mountain tracks

When he first came to the mountains his life was far away

On the road

John Denver, Rocky Mountain High
Straight road leading to pine forest and distant mountains

The road to the Torres del Paine, Chile

Rough road through mountain landscape

A mountain road in Oman

Gravel path on a mountainside

A path somewhere in rural Umbria, late afternoon

City streets

City streets

The stories that they tell

Carole King, City Streets
Busy road with cars and motorbikes

Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Road with traffic and building with gold dome

Les Invalides, Paris

Quiet street in a city with red bus

Piccadilly Circus during lockdown, London

Off the beaten path

I’m off an’ runnin’

Clear off the beaten path

David Lee Roth, Lady Luck
Raised road across expanse of wet sand

The causeway to Holy Island, north east England

Lady in a sari driving bullocks along a road

A road in rural Rajasthan, India

Slope of green bushes with winding track

A track through the tea plantations in Munnar, Kerala, India

Stairways

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold

And she’s buying a stairway to heaven

Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
Stone steps leading down past old houses

Stairs down to the past? In Corinaldo, Marche, Italy

Stairs with quote from Star Trek

Stairs up to the future? Star Trek exhibition, MoPop in Seattle, WA

52 Comments

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