Hawaii IX 1978

Curator: This is “Hawaii IX,” a photograph by Richard Misrach, printed as a C-print back in 1978. What strikes you when you first see it? Editor: Initially? A sense of beautiful suffocation. There's such density, the plants clawing for space under a veiled sky. I'm instantly thinking of hidden narratives. Curator: Hidden is a great word for it. Misrach has always been drawn to landscapes marked by human presence, even if that presence is only implied, wouldn't you agree? He seeks to represent environmental impact within landscapes, and often photographs the desert in particular. Editor: Precisely. Here, even though we see no figures, there's this feeling of cultivated nature pressing in. Those dangling vines, they almost look like boundaries, thresholds, or perhaps even prison bars. Do you think there's a hint of unease intentionally woven into what looks at first glance like an idyllic scene? Curator: I think so, yes. Visually, Misrach’s composition is divided almost perfectly in half – on the left, a light grey, monumental tree, in high contrast to the deep dark sky filling in most of the picture frame behind a curtain of luscious tropical vegetation. The light seems too cool, almost artificial, the shadows a bit too sharp for a natural landscape. I believe these observations lend a particular mood to this picture. Editor: That stark contrast is critical. Symbolically, light often represents knowledge and enlightenment. The shadowed areas become spaces of the unknown, the unconscious. Are we, as viewers, standing on the precipice of understanding something essential about our relationship with nature? Curator: It certainly invites that kind of interpretation, as do most of Misrach’s photographic landscapes, and is especially highlighted within the "Hawaii" series to which this work belongs. Editor: Thinking about cultural memory, jungles and rainforests have, for centuries, been potent symbols of the untamed, the place where the civilized world confronts its own wilder impulses. This feels like an exploration of that very human tension. Curator: Yes. It's that tension, I think, that makes "Hawaii IX" more than just a pretty picture. It stays with you, those shadowy depths beckoning long after you've moved on. Editor: Exactly. The art is less about presenting the landscape itself and more about capturing what the idea of that place stirs up within us.