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Yo-Yo Ma, the Natural World and Our Common Nature
4 May 2023
Yesterday on Amanpour & Co., host Christiane Amanpour interviewed Yo-Yo Ma about his latest project playing classical music on his cello in beautiful natural settings. "Lately, I've realized that the time that I spend in nature is what brings me back to something much bigger than myself," he says.
Are we part of nature or apart from it, he asks. In fact, he says that if we start to think of ourselves as part of nature, "we start to care for it the way we try to care for ourselves."
So he takes his cello to some national parks and plays in the open.
It's both a thoughtful and entertaining interview but during one musical interlude or another, we had a thought of our own.
Isn't this what landscape photographers have been doing all along?
From, say, 1861 to yesterday, in fact. We have always gone out into the world with our own particular instrument to sing its beauty.
You would be hard-pressed to find a photographer who thinks of nothing bigger than themselves. It's just the nature of the business.
A photographer is never in front of the lens. There's always an other as subject. The natural world, the bustle of the street, a face gazing back.
That inevitably translates into a love a nature, a passion for documenting history and a fondness for people other than ourselves.
So, as you might expect, as Yo-Yo Ma played outdoors surrounded by natural beauty, there was a photographer there to capture the moment.