Untitled 1980

Ursula Schulz-Dornburg made this photograph, and it is so subtle that it is almost not there! Can you see the building sitting quietly in the landscape? I wonder what it was like for Ursula to make this picture: the light, the air, the quiet desolation of this scene… The composition has a curious stillness that settles across the whole image. The dark reeds, horizontal water, and wide sky offer a lesson in how to make something out of very little, with a limited palette. I find it inspiring to see how the artist has used the horizon line to divide the composition, creating a play between foreground and background, flatness and depth. This image resonates with the work of other land artists, such as Robert Smithson or Agnes Denes, who engage with the environment through sculptural or photographic interventions. Artists are in an ongoing conversation; they all seem to respond to each other’s images, and even to places like this!