Rocks in the sky: a geological mystery – in pictures
If you’ve never seen a huge boulder hovering above the Earth against a brilliant blue sky, where have you been? As David Quentin’s photographs show, rocks in the sky have been spotted everywhere from Cumbria to Québec. Quentin’s photos aren’t fakes … but the rocks might not be quite what they seem
Wed 3 Jun 2015 02.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 10.42 EDT
Near Callanish, Isle of Lewis
‘I have been photographing rocks in the sky for five years. It started off as an attempt at a simple visual pun; I was walking on the South Downs and on a whim I threw a piece of chalk up into the sky to photograph it there because it was as white as a cloud. The photograph turned out pretty badly, and I became fascinated with the technical challenge of making photographs of rocks in the sky work.’All photographs: David Quentin. The series was first published in issue 36 of Five Dials Share on Facebook Share on TwitterNine Barrow Down, Isle of Purbeck
‘The process of taking them is quite dynamic. I have to move quickly for a number of reasons – to catch the light if it is changeable, to catch the right angle on the rock as it follows its trajectory across my viewfinder, and also so I don’t bore whoever I am with, since these photographs are always taken while I am on a walk with a friend. The resulting photographs, by contrast, always seem serene and static. I am not sure they reflect the process that has created them. They reflect something else altogether.’ Share on Facebook Share on TwitterBrent crater, Ontario
‘Sometimes I throw them; sometimes I ask a friend to throw the rock (one such rock-throwing collaborator is author Robert Macfarlane). If I do it myself it is just a matter of throwing with my left hand, while I hold the camera to my eye and take the picture with my right hand. I do not use a tripod, as I need to move while the rock is moving to frame it properly.’ Share on Facebook Share on TwitterWatendlath Fell, Cumbria
‘The rocks look to me like they are hanging there, “in much the same way that bricks don’t”, as Douglas Adams wrote.’ Share on Facebook Share on TwitterSeilebost beach, Harris
‘It’s hard to choose my favourite. The one on Seilebost Beach has a deliciously sinister and otherworldly feel. The geology is so interesting there, and the colours so pretty. The one with the “falling rocks” warning sign still amuses me, even though the joke is very obvious. And I love the fact that it features a piece of mind-blowingly ancient Lewisian Gneiss, one of the most celebrated and fascinating rock types in the British Isles.’ Share on Facebook Share on TwitterCharlevoix crater, Québec
‘Geology is a snapshot of a dynamic process, and part of that dynamism derives from the buoyancy of different rock types. To that extent, my photographs seem to me to be a kind of extreme geology.’ Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
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