Edith and Berry Necklace, Danville, Virginia 1971

Emmet Gowin took this gelatin silver print photograph, “Edith and Berry Necklace, Danville, Virginia,” sometime in the twentieth century. It’s like looking through a peephole, isn’t it? The dark edges of the frame give way to this scene of Edith, adorned with a handmade berry necklace, standing in a lush, overgrown garden. There’s a raw, almost primal quality to the image, which reminds me of some of Sally Mann's earlier work. Gowin isn’t trying to pretty things up or hide the process. The texture of the photograph has a grainy, almost tactile quality, which really emphasizes the physicality of the scene. The monochromatic palette has a timeless feel, like a memory fading at the edges. Check out the way the leaves frame the shot, like nature's own picture frame - or prison bars. It's a bold statement, letting nature run wild and capturing it with such intimacy and honesty. It reminds me of how Robert Adams shot the suburban landscape, but way more intimate and wild.