Landscape c. 1920

Léonard Misonne made this photograph, Landscape, in a time before digital manipulation, relying on darkroom techniques to coax mood from the silver. It's all about atmosphere, right? Look at how Misonne coaxes light and shadow to create something both familiar and slightly otherworldly. The texture of the ground, strewn with leaves, is almost palpable, while the trees recede into a hazy distance. There’s a figure there, barely visible; a tiny mark which amplifies the scale of the trees and the depth of the forest. That touch of the human makes it so the forest isn't just an abstract idea of nature, but instead a place we can be, a space we can walk through. Think about painters like the Impressionists, and how they played with light and form. Misonne seems to be speaking the same language, just with a different tool. Both are searching, trying to find new ways of seeing and feeling. There's a painterly quality to the photograph, almost as if he’s brushing light onto the scene.