Maerdy, Wales 2007

Witho Worms made this photograph of Maerdy, Wales, and it’s all about subtle tones playing off each other. It’s almost monochromatic, but not quite. Look how Worms teases out the textures using light. The darks are so rich, you almost want to touch them. It feels like you could run your hand over the surface of the hills. The way the light catches the tops of the trees creates this gorgeous, hazy line. What does this view feel like? Somber, right? There is a quietness to the landscape, a kind of stillness that gets under your skin. Notice that lighter sliver, how that single mark can create a feeling of unease, or maybe just of possibility? I see a connection between Worms’s work and the photography of someone like Thomas Struth. Both are interested in how we see and record space, but Worms brings a painterly sensibility to the process, a way of working that's about feeling as much as seeing. It’s about how we make sense of the world, one image at a time.