Out of a star-dense winter sky, the Hale-Bopp comet rears its brilliant head – a shining nucleus of ice and dust, trailing galactic gas and debris, forged light years away. It’s one of the brightest comets to have entered the inner solar system in known history, and perhaps the most widely observed comet of the twentieth century. But here, as the comet permeates the Vineyard sky, the moment feels singular. A lonely shack, perched on the edge of the celestial expanse; a comet bursting into its stillness and marking its place in time.

Stephen DiRado took this picture in Edgartown in the early morning hours of a February day in 1997, just a few weeks before the comet reached its perigee. Stephen, who is from Worcester but summers on the Vineyard, is a lauded photographer, 2012 recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim fellowship, and senior lecturer in photography at Clark University. He began his Martha’s Vineyard project in 1987, first taking portraits of friends and family and then expanding over the years to include action, landscape, and portraiture of strangers on the beach. He usually shoots in black and white, and often composes series of work shot over long periods of time. Each piece is a part of the whole, like this photo of the Hale-Bopp comet, which is part of the Celestial series, yet stands alone as a rare rendezvous of heaven and earth.     

To learn more about Stephen DiRado and see his online gallery, visit www.stephendirado.com.