Hawaii VI 1978

Richard Misrach made this photograph in Hawaii, and like many of his other works, it's a reminder that beauty and unease can coexist in the same frame. What strikes me is the way the greens and blues wrestle for dominance. The lush tropical foliage, captured with such detail, is almost aggressive in its vibrancy. But then your eye drifts up to the pool of water above. It’s like a dark mirror, reflecting back something unknowable. Is it a portal? A void? There's something about the surface quality, too. The way the light is caught, almost trapped, within the leaves, gives the image a strange, almost dreamlike quality. It makes me think of Hiroshi Sugimoto, who also found ways to transform the ordinary into something haunting and sublime. It's this play between clarity and ambiguity that makes Misrach's work so compelling. It's a photograph, yes, but it's also a space for contemplation.