Snow Canyon State Park, Utah 1987

Richard Misrach made this photograph of Snow Canyon State Park, Utah. Imagine standing where Misrach stood, breathing in that desert air. It must have felt very isolated. I wonder if he had been thinking about other landscape photographers like Carleton Watkins or Timothy O’Sullivan. Look at the way the sand stretches out, almost like it is breathing. The land has a geological presence, formed by shifting sand and rock over millennia. You can see the wind has created little ridges, and the light just skims off of them. I find myself wondering, did he come at dawn, or dusk to capture this light? The mountains seem to be looming in the background almost as a kind of spectre or dream. It's funny how artists are in this conversation, influencing each other across time, even when they don't know it. Painting, photography, it's all just another way of seeing the world, isn't it?