California 2014

Richard Ross made this photograph, ‘California’ at an unknown date. The composition follows a central vanishing point, the receding forms pull you through the corridor of figures that seem to lead nowhere. Look at the color scheme; it’s very muted, like a faded memory. It's almost entirely brown and beige, a kind of institutional palette that feels both sterile and oppressive. The figures themselves are like repeated marks in a way, echoes of each other down the hall. You can see the artist has made an arrangement where the sitters and the space mirror one another. That repeated door with the small window in it. Isn't it interesting how the artist chose this exact angle, framing the figures so they are looking into the door windows? It's a haunting image, the doors almost become faces. You can’t help but wonder about the people who are there, what they see, what they think. Ross's pictures remind me of someone like Martha Rosler and her focus on the everyday as a site for critique. Art doesn’t always have to provide answers. Sometimes, it’s just about creating a space for questions to emerge.