A perfectly imperfect sunset

Power on the horizon
Laval, QC
June 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I thought I'd share another sunset view from my late father-in-law's place, as I'm not sure how many more times I'll be able to shoot from this vantage point.

The electrical towers at the base have always vexed me. Virtually the entire horizon is dotted with them - plus a motley mixture of cell towers, big box stores, and lamp standards from the highway that splits through the middle of this once-but-no-longer-sleepy town.

They mess up the scene, pollute an otherwise idyllic landscape with the messy artifacts of modern, urban life. I know there's always PhotoShop, but that would be dishonest. Digital removal of annoyances like these might make for a cleaner shot. But it isn't what I originally saw, and it isn't the story that should be told.

I've spent way too much time over a dozen or so years standing in this very spot pondering the perils of photographic imperfection. But only now does it dawn on me that the story need not be perfect. Those towers are there for a reason. And their presence in virtually every scene I've captured from here is part of the story of this sliver of the planet, of how during our time growing up here it evolved from bucolic agricultural paradise to a bustling city of 400,000 people.

We were part of the reason why those towers - and cell antennae, and big box stores, and highway lamps, and... - were needed in the first place. And like the lives we once led here, they aren't anywhere near perfect. Which, in the end, is as it should be.

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