elephant journal

www of the week: Mike Hill

by Merete Heather Mueller on May 30, 2008

Growing up in New England, my mom and I ate picnic lunches at Maudsley State Park in Newburyport, Massachusetts during the summertime, under a huge, lonely, statuesque tree in the middle of a wide field. I have images of that tree, framed by every season, imprinted in my mind. But, somehow, I’d forgotten all about it, until I opened the homepage of Mike Hill’s photography website and saw the above image unfold. Though the photo was actually taken in northern California, it reminded me of what I love about Mike Hill’s photos: that each seems to contain at least one, or even hundreds of stories, while still capturing a single, fleeting moment. We first “met” Mike while he was working as the art director for prAna, one of our most loyal advertisers. And now that he’s photo-ing full time, we’ve featured a three page Contemplative Art spread of his work in the Summer issue.