Echoes of celebration

South Pleasant Street & The Amherst Town Common, Amherst MA
Photo by Joshua Wolfsun

This featured photo for January – and the opening image of the 2026 Head in the Clouds Amherst calendar – comes from Joshua Wolfsun, who photographed this scene along South Pleasant Street and the Amherst Town Common.

I’ve always loved how Joshua captured this early January dawn: holiday lights still sparkling, their glow reflected on icy streets. The scene feels both rare and familiar, holding that fleeting moment when the old year has passed but the echoes of celebration still linger.

For 2026, the final edition of our calendar, the jury selected their favorite images from more than a decade of past calendars rather than issuing an open call. This photograph originally appeared as the December image in our 2018 calendar, though it was actually taken just after the New Year – which feels exactly right for a scene suspended between endings and beginnings. ✨❄️