Real Estate #90922 1990

Henry Wessel made this photograph, Real Estate #90922, at an unknown date, but it captures so much. It’s about surface and light, and it's also about seeing. The tones are just so subdued: the pale yellow house, the faded blue sky. There’s not much contrast; it’s all so quiet, sun-washed. I keep thinking about how the color itself is a kind of mark-making here. Take a look at the lawn. It’s not neatly manicured; it’s just growing wild, pushing up through the concrete. It’s so real and kind of messy. Wessel has really shown me something about the beauty of the mundane. It reminds me of how Ed Ruscha used to photograph ordinary buildings. I love how art can shift your gaze and make you see the world differently. It’s like, maybe beauty isn’t about perfection at all.