Untitled c. 1920s

This photograph was made by Edward W. Trevelyan and lives here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The scene, captured in shades of brown, pulls you into a landscape where trees reach up against a hazy sky. Look at the surface, how the light seems to glow from within, like a memory fading into the present. It’s the kind of texture you want to reach out and touch, even though you know you can't. I think the appeal comes from the way the artist has controlled the tones, creating a soft, dreamlike quality. Focus on the treetops, how they're not sharply defined, but kind of bleed into the sky, dissolving into the surrounding atmosphere. It's this ambiguity that really gets me. This photograph reminds me of the work of photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, who were also exploring the atmospheric effects of light and shadow. Trevelyan is also inviting us to look closer, to question what we see, and to embrace the beauty of the undefined.