Newly burned area and grasses 17 - 1999

Terry Evans made this square photograph of a freshly torched prairie with film, and it’s the golden and brown hues that really grab me. It’s like looking at a Rothko but one made of earth and light. The surface has this amazing texture, it’s not just flat land, you can almost feel the dryness and brittleness of the grasses underfoot. The shadow that carves across the bottom third of the shot is so sharp, it's as if you could reach out and touch it. The shadow gives it this uncanny depth. It reminds me a little of some of those early aerial shots by someone like Alfred Stieglitz, but with a quiet, ecological focus. Evans isn’t just documenting a landscape, she's showing us a process. The ambiguity is what makes it sing. Is it about destruction or renewal? Maybe it’s both.