Visit to an Oil Field in Purissima Hills, USA Possibly 1908

Curator: Geldolph Adriaan Kessler's photograph, "Visit to an Oil Field in Purissima Hills, USA," possibly from 1908, presents an intriguing composition. We see it here at the Rijksmuseum as a grayscale print. Editor: My initial feeling is…disquiet. It's a landscape, but a decidedly *un*natural one. The stark contrast of burgeoning foliage with these cold industrial shapes sends chills down my spine. Like nature is holding its breath in the presence of industry. Curator: The starkness you observe is certainly emphasized by the tonal range— the grayscale lending the scene a certain historical distance. Note how Kessler has structured the composition using strong horizontal lines: the flat planes of the fields versus the verticals of the smokestacks and telephone poles. The perspective flattens somewhat, compressing space to create a very tense visual field. Editor: And yet there’s something compelling about the arrangement. I can almost smell the crude oil mingling with the scent of wildflowers. The geometry of those tank structures mimics the curves of the hills. It's a bizarre dance of destruction and growth; the anthropic interacting with the wild. Almost beautiful in a terrible, unavoidable way. Curator: Indeed. This tension you describe underscores the complex relationship between industrial advancement and environmental consequence that Kessler’s work, I argue, attempts to highlight. Even in the softness of the out-of-focus flora in the foreground, there are harsh edges, a reminder that nothing here is truly untouched by the intrusion. Editor: I suppose that's what makes this image stick with you. The realization that progress, however you define it, often comes with a shadow. Kessler's captured it right here, an uncanny stillness before what I imagine was a loud roaring to follow. Curator: An unsettling silence indeed. It serves, perhaps, as a prescient visual poem— a lament, even— for the landscapes forever changed by our relentless pursuit.