Superstition Mountain 1999

Dana Hoey made this image, Superstition Mountain, an approximately 12 x 18 inch photograph, at an unknown date. It has the feeling of an old, perhaps forgotten place. There is a lone figure in the landscape, a woman. Her hair whips across her face, obscuring her identity, lost in an expansive, almost lunar terrain. Hoey uses a stark monochromatic palette, evoking a sense of timelessness. It is as if the photographic chemicals themselves are another layer of weather or atmosphere, creating a stark contrast between the delicate detail of the woman's hair and clothing and the rough, scrubby terrain. The figure, lost in the landscape, becomes a metaphor for the human condition, questioning our place in the vastness of time and space. Like the work of early photographers such as Carleton Watkins, or Timothy O’Sullivan, Hoey's image opens a space for reflection on the passage of time, the weight of history, and the ever-elusive nature of meaning.