Aerial View: Blowdown and New Growth near Norway Pass, 9 Miles NE of Mount St. Helens, Washington Possibly 1983 - 1989

Frank Gohlke made this photograph of an area near Mount St. Helens, in Washington. It's a landscape of greys and blacks, a study in devastation. But it's not just about destruction. Look at how the fallen trees are arranged. They're not just scattered randomly, there's a kind of order to the chaos. It’s like a big, messy drawing, a landscape reworked. Each fallen tree creates a line, a mark on the earth. It reminds me of process-oriented art, where the making is as important as the result. The texture of the image is striking, too. You can almost feel the roughness of the broken branches, the softness of the new growth pushing through the ash. It's about resilience, rebirth, and the conversation between destruction and creation. Like Ansel Adams, Gohlke explores the sublime beauty of nature, but with an unflinching look at its destructive power. It's a reminder that art, like nature, is always changing, always in process.