Pultneyville Orchard Possibly 1977 - 1980

Roger Mertin took this photograph, Pultneyville Orchard, and to me, it feels like a drawing made with light. Imagine him, bundled up against the cold, setting up his camera in the dead of winter. The starkness of the trees, the bare branches reaching out like frantic fingers—it’s all so melancholy and beautiful. Look at the texture of the bark, the way it catches the light. There’s a real sensitivity to the nuances of gray. The composition is interesting, too. The main tree is centered, but the other trees frame it in a way that creates depth and perspective. It reminds me a little of some of the early modernist landscape painters, who were also interested in capturing the essence of a place through careful observation and formal experimentation. In fact, the formal qualities of this photo put me in mind of Agnes Martin’s minimalist grids. In the end, artists are always borrowing from and building upon each other's ideas. That’s how art evolves, through an ongoing conversation across time.