The strength of the impressions [of Lake View] has nothing to do with the season or the weather. It really comes from what you might call the community of Lake View, which not only includes the art and architecture, but the nature and geology and the history that art and architecture represents. It's also the people that it represents from the everyday person to the people of great, giant notoriety.
It represents the design of the property, which is so well thought out and intentionally done so that you wouldn't necessarily feel more important in one spot or another. It's an incredible sensitivity to the topography, a lack of the cerebral planning that you'd associate with laying out graves in a grid. The roads meander. The paths meander. It's easy to lose your bearings until you get to know the place. I often still need to consult maps to pinpoint where I'm at exactly.
Louise van Cleve Strong is right there at the beginning of the road right by the dam. That's the cover of the book. I love that name: Louise van Cleve Strong. It's a universal symbol: the arch. I knew from a photographic point of view right from the beginning that it was significant. — as told to Jason Brill
