Maymont Park

Author's Comments

One hundred acres tucked into Richmond that do not quite feel like Richmond once you are inside them. Maymont is a Gilded Age estate that has been given back to the city, and walking it on a spring morning is a strange, layered experience - you pass from the mannered geometry of the Italian garden down through woodland paths to a Japanese garden that feels transported from somewhere else entirely. A waterfall runs through it all. The cascade is the spine of the place, and it is working year-round, which matters in February when everything else has gone dormant. The Japanese garden is the photograph. Early morning, before nine, when the koi are moving in the pond and the light is still filtering sideways through the maples. In April the azaleas do something ridiculous here. In October the maples do something else ridiculous. I have made my best frames of Maymont in those two narrow windows, working slowly around the pond and letting the reflections do most of the compositional work. The mansion is worth circling, especially in raking afternoon light, but I find the grounds more interesting than the architecture itself. There is a particular stretch where the path drops down toward the water and the estate disappears behind you, and for a moment you could be anywhere. That is the feeling I come back for. Admission is free, which still surprises me. Come with a long morning and comfortable shoes.

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