VOA常速英语:Renowned Photographer Captures America’s National Treasures in Stunning Images(翻译)

Carol Highsmith has been called America’s photographer. She’s been travelling the U.S. for more than 3 decades, taking pictures of the people and places that make America unique.
卡罗尔·海史密斯是一位记录美国生活的摄影师。她一直在美国生活旅行，用相机记录美国独特的美景和人们的生活，至今已经三十多年了。

“When I go out across America, what do I photograph? Everything!Someone said to me, ‘Well, why would you photograph the Golden Gate Bridge, for instance. Everybody’s taking photographs of it.’Yes, there will be images of the Golden Gate Bridge that may exist 500 years from now,but the ones that we know will exist in high resolution will be mine at the Library of Congress.”
“我在美国四处游历时会拍些什么东西呢？一切所见之物！有人问我这样一些问题，‘比如说，为何你还要拍金门大桥呢？金门大桥的图片不是俯拾皆是吗？’的确，也许未来五百年内一直都会有金门大桥的照片。但是，只有我拍的那张将以高分辨率的形式在国会图书馆保存下来。”

Highsmith is collaborating with the Library of Congress in Washington, the largest library in the world, to capture as many images as she can.
海史密斯目前正与位于华盛顿的国会图书馆合作，这是世界上最大的图书馆。她将竭尽全力，尽可能多的拍摄优秀照片。

“It’s important that we have our beautiful things tucked away at a place that knows all about preservation.”
“把美丽的东西交由深谙存储之道的机构储藏，这点至关重要。”

Her vast collection all copyright free, includes many memorable images of America’s National Parks.
这些不胜枚举的收藏集均不涉及到版权问题，其中包括大量来自美国国家公园令人印象深刻的照片。

I’ve been to most of them, and it’s everything from the spectacular and vast grand canyon to, winter time scenes of Yellow Stone.
“大多数公园我都去过，拍摄了许多美景，包括气势磅礴的大峡谷，还有寒冬腊月的黄石公园。”

At Yellow Stone, America’s first national park, she was mesmerized by the bison.
黄石公园是美国第一座国家公园，在这里她被野牛深深的迷住了。

I would say, really in all the wildlife images I’ve taken and I’ve taken a lot, the bison are the best.In a sense that they look like they come from a hundred thousand years ago. Looking at this vast gorgeous landscape of the Yellow Stone, and the winter and the fall and the spring,and you are seeing the bison’s babies, seeing all and all of the calves, you just think about‘will this always be’?
讲真，我拍过大量的动物写真，其中野牛系列是最棒的。有时候，照片中的它们看起来就像是一种来自十万年前的生物。欣赏着黄石公园如诗如画的四季美景，看到这些野牛犊，你会情不自禁的思索，如此美好的事物会长存吗?

Highsmith shoots at all hours and every weather condition, and has even had to face her fear of flying.
海史密斯总是夜以继日、风雨无阻的从事摄影活动，她曾经甚至还克服了自己对飞行的恐惧。

"So I finally get to Alaska and I’m going to Denali, and I hire a plane to take me up there and all the way there I’m thinking ‘How can I get out of this?’I just say, ‘You must do it.’ So I did it!But to photograph it, and then to photograph Ruth Glacier, which is huge,and to know that maybe someday it’ll be gone — it was just an experience and a half!”
“我租了一架飞机到阿拉斯加，去了德纳里峰。一路上一直害怕，想要放弃。然而我对自己说一定要坚持下去，所以我成功的做到了。拍摄这座山峰，然后拍了高耸的鲁斯冰川。但当了解到它可能以后会消融时，感觉十分震惊。”

It is that fear of iconic American landscapes and landmarks one day disappearing that motivates her.
美国这些标志性的风景和地标未来也许将不复存在，这令她深感担忧。而这种忧虑正是激励她不断前进的动力。

“They say Yellow Stone, it could just blow up! When the bisons being there in the Yellow Stone, that the Washington Monument,we had an earthquake here in Washington D.C， that whole thing could just have collapsed.So I’m just there to capture that as it looks right now.”
“人们说黄石公园可能会爆炸！可是那里还有许多野牛，还有华盛顿纪念碑，如果华盛顿地震，一切都将成为残垣断壁。所以我要把它们现在的样子都记录下来。”

Some of her experiences have been especially meaningful.“So I’m at Ford’s Theatre, 150 years after Lincoln died, right there. And there are re-enactors,and there was this man who held a candle and that’s how his face was lit.And I thought, ‘Whoa, you could almost feel like what it must have felt like to be there that night,’I also photographed, for instance, the coat that Lincoln wore the night he died, with his bloodstains on it.So to be close to these artifacts — it’s just incredible.”
她的一些经历意义非凡。“我来到林肯遇刺150年后的福特剧院，这里经常有角色扮演的戏剧，一位男演员举着烛灯，灯火照亮了他的脸颊。我觉得，这戏剧里的场景逼真得仿佛可以让人身临其境。我还拍下了林肯总统遇刺那晚穿的那件外套，上面还留有他的血迹。与这些古物近距离接触，简直妙不可言。”

Carol Highsmith will be remembered not only just for her work, but for the singular active generousity that has defined her career.
人们将永远记住卡罗尔·海史密斯，不仅仅是因为她的作品，更是她职业生涯中那份无私的慷慨之情。

I’m just glad to be there, I’m glad to have this as my job.
我很高兴自己能走到这一步，也很幸运自己从事了这份工作。