Cape Cod 1972

This photograph, ‘Cape Cod’ by Harry Callahan, is a meeting place of land and sky. It’s basically a landscape, but what kind? It’s got that horizon line, but it’s so high, like a stage, and the sky presses down on the ground. I can imagine Callahan out there in the landscape, breathing it in, thinking, how can I make this flat? Callahan's photographs often explore the relationship between form and light, and that light just rakes across the sand, picking out the ripples. It’s a simple scene, but the composition is so strong, so direct, that it feels powerful. It reminds me of some of the seascapes of Hiroshi Sugimoto, that same sense of vastness and quiet.