Marcello in Forest 2015

Elina Brotherus made this photograph, "Marcello in Forest" by carefully orchestrating a scene that feels both natural and deeply considered, like a painting come to life. The monochromatic palette makes me think about the way we see paintings, sometimes imagining more than what’s there. I imagine Brotherus waiting patiently for the right light, the right moment when the forest aligns into a composition, just so. The way the animal moves through the space, a slash of life against the stillness, reminds me of a brushstroke. The trunks of the trees rise up like the strong verticals we see in the work of Agnes Martin, but also point to a sense of the sublime, similar to that found in Romantic landscape painting. It is these subtle connections across time and form that make us understand the interconnectedness of all artmaking, all thought, all being.