Santa Cruz Amusement Park

Santa Cruz, a bright afternoon in summer. The park light here is high and direct, burning through the clear sky to illuminate a palette of blue, red, gold, and orange. Rides,roller coasters with looping tracks, Ferris wheels with yellow gondolas, vintage suspended cars,stand out against this glare, their colors sharpened by the sunlight while the surrounding figures remain slightly blurred, moving in and out of frame. The images return to these same rides repeatedly, catching the same angles: a roller coaster track curving in muted orange, a cable car system hanging like bright yellow spheres from thin cables, the Ferris wheel’s green structure glowing under the diffused light. What accumulates is less a scene than a set of relationships,between color and shadow, between motion and stillness, between the built forms and the scattered figures that pass through them.

The roller coaster track loops in muted orange, its curves softened by the high summer light while the Ferris wheel’s green gondolas stand out sharply against the clear sky.

The Santa Cruz amusement park photography series by Ludwig Favre is available as a limited edition fine art print, signed and numbered.