Tucson Palm [From the series Cancellations] 1974 - 1978

Curator: Here we have Thomas Barrow’s "Tucson Palm," part of his "Cancellations" series, taken sometime between 1974 and 1978. What's your first reaction to it? Editor: Initially, I see disruption, a stark division imposed upon what would otherwise be a rather mundane, even nostalgic, urban landscape scene. It’s almost aggressive. Curator: The "cancellations" are precisely that, aren't they? Barrow intentionally scratches across the negative, obscuring and reinterpreting the scene. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, but with a photographic edge, of course. The underlying photo, absent the scratch marks, feels like quintessential 70s American West, a little sleepy, a little…forgotten. Editor: And that's the tension, isn't it? This juxtaposition of decay and development that the Arizona landscape embodies and that he then layers. On one side, you have a lone palm tree and an older building—institutional maybe? Across from it, rampant construction. Alluding to themes of gentrification, perhaps the erasure of established communities. The scratch marks underscore this very point. Curator: That push and pull really comes through for me, a dialogue between old and new, organic and inorganic, presence and absence. It’s like Barrow is saying, "Look closer. Nothing is as simple as it seems." Editor: Absolutely. It’s also worth considering the era it was made in, the mid to late 70s, with a cultural focus on deconstruction. The gesture disrupts our consumption of the image and questions notions of photographic truth. It also makes me think about visibility, power, and the act of looking. What does it mean to deface or ‘cancel’ an image of a city’s landscape? Curator: A deliberate visual interruption! What a perfect turn of phrase. For me, it makes you consider how much of our perception is shaped by these same interruptions—advertising, news cycles, fleeting trends. Editor: It makes one think that perhaps “Cancellations” can reveal deeper truths about both the nature of photography and what we take for granted in a society rushing forward. Curator: Indeed, a simple image reframed can open such a vista of ideas about urbanism and societal tension. I think I will never view it the same way again. Editor: Likewise! I appreciate that the artist's interventions grant such resonance to the landscape around us, however banal or beautiful it seems.