Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005] Possibly 2005 - 2010

Richard Misrach made this photograph, Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005], at some point in 2005. I'm struck by the kind of making visible that's happening here, a layering of marks, maybe accidental, maybe deliberate. There's the house itself, with its closed shutters and windows, which looks like it has seen better days. Then there's the boards propped up outside, which seem to have been painted or sprayed with numbers and words. The textures and surfaces of these things really get me thinking about mark making. The spray paint looks drippy and thin, almost like watercolor, while the wood grain has this coarse density. I wonder, too, about that single daub of red on the board to the left. Is it blood, or a drip of paint? It's like a little punctuation mark, isn't it? Misrach is one of those photographers, like Eggleston, who changed the way we see the American vernacular. But unlike Eggleston’s hot, candy-colored world, Misrach's version is more sombre, even elegiac. It reminds me that art isn't just about beauty, or technique, but about opening up questions, resisting easy answers.