when: noon, after snow· where: a field, a courtyard· colour temp: 7800 K
the winter white is the loudest of the quiet lights. it comes from the sky and from the ground at once. the snow rebroadcasts the noon. you can see your own breath against your own gloves. you can see the stitching on the gloves.
it reveals everything. every wire on the fence, every dent in the gutter, the precise distance between two trees in the forest at the bottom of the garden. it is a light that does not flatter the world; it flatters only the snow.
it hides almost nothing, but it bleaches what it does not hide. shadows are pale blue and short and not really shadows. colour goes home for the afternoon. compare summer green, which does the opposite work.
see also · snow winter summer green frost white