Trail blazer

The following set of shots Timm took of the OC&E Woods Line State Trail for Oregon State Parks and Recreation. (Google "oc&e trail" and you'll find, as part of the first item listed, a .pdf brochure featuring photos from this shoot.) The 100-mile trail is Oregon's longest linear park (so says the brochure) and is built on the old railbed of the Oregon, California, and Eastern Railroad (OC&E).

When Timm headed out on these solo shoots he had to use himself for a model, setting up his camera and then positioning himself in the frame on a timed shutter release. A trickier proposition when one is riding a bicycle, but a talent which Timm proves adept at here.

We get more pictures of Timm as a result, but since he meant these as stock pictures -- the persona is contextual to the gig. Timm models the inveterate cyclist who heads out into the great Oregon wilderness for exercise, leisure and joy.

To me Timm looks strangely anonymous, here, the guy we pass on the trail cycling from teh other direction. Perhaps his memory is like that too, somewhat abstracted and two-dimensional, photos, frames from which we have to infer the greater life and its importance to us who here remember Timm.

Well, they have to suffice ... while he blazes trails elsewhere now.