“My sky photographs in 1988 were a play on color field painting: Reinhardt, Rothko, et al. But my photos were not trying to emulate painting – they were exploring the nature of the (profound) differences between photography and painting”

Richard Misrach is an American Contemporary photographer and also one of my favourite photographers from the New Topography and social landscape movement. He is from California and he  specialized in landscape photography where colour was often a prominent and relevant feature in his photography, he is also well known for his photography of the American West with his photography series ‘Desert Cantos’. In his early year before he gained a passion for photography, he studied psychology in the Los Angeles  University in California where he studied Psychology and also pursued a degree in mathematics. He then went onto looking at homelessness in Los Angeles where he published ‘Telegraph 3 AM’ which were black and white photogrpahs. This was done to help raise awareness and improve the lives of the people who lived there, after this we went to southern California to take a very different approach, moving away from photographing people and focusing on the land around us.

“I’ve come to believe that beauty can be a very powerful conveyor of difficult ideas. It engages people when they might otherwise look away”

Desert Cantos

This series of photographs were taken over a number of years and is an ongoing series of photographs which focus on the american deserts which started in 1979, four years after the New Topographic’s exhibition, which Richard Misrach wasn’t part of, although there are allot of similarities between the his work and the movement. The use of the word cantos comes from the word ‘canto’ which refers to a section of a long poem, which refers to ‘The Cantos’ which is an incomplete poem by Ezra Pound. This series was a big step from his earlier work, in both aesthetic style and the fast it was such an ambitious series. To me the series shows a certain softness but also sublimity from something desolate, I think the simplicity and the colour schemes such as the morning/evening sky and how it softens and creates an unsaturated appearance to the photographs reflects a deeper, abstract and more poetic meaning and concept in the same way that a poem would. It also shows a clear and obvious sense of how we live in such a desolate environment.

The conclusions offered are multi-faceted: human use and habitation of the desert have resulted in a great deal of destruction of a fragile environment, but at the same time the human intrusion seems small and ultimately of little consequence – Essay by Reyner Banham.

Border Cantos is a sub project to accompany his ongoing Desert Cantos series where he worked with composer Guillermo Galindo. This project focuses on the border between mexico and the United states which was started in 2004. It is also a statement on the environment and our effects on it such as with the use of transport and waste. I like how this project captures the variety of the American/Mexican border.

Petrochemical America

These photographs were taken as part of a commission in 1998 on wards to document the surroundings and the areas where people live around the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where the area had become a heavily industrial area, where petrochemicals and factories were everywhere, this has lead to chemicals, waste and other toxins to ruin the wildlife and quality of the water. This series ties in very well with that of Ansel Adams in the way that it wants to evoke a sense of environmentalism and how we need to protect and be aware of nature but instead of focusing on the beauty of the untouched natural landscape, it looks at how we have changed and destroyed the land into something many would consider unsightly but instead appreciating the beauty and aesthetic qualities of the desolate and degraded landscape. Overall I find these photographs sort of ominous, they share the same softness of the Desert Cantos, but with a very different eerie tone and ambiance with grey, blue and green tones as well as the fact that they often feature gloomy and overcast skies, they are a clear example of how people go and leave an area, leaving marks and belongings behind, they show a clear sense of how unwanted the area is and how something that once carried potential can be ruined and then left.

“I’d never heard of this area, and when I finally saw the landscape, I was shocked. It was really extreme, the amount of industry along the river and the poor communities living there, I couldn’t believe it actually existed”

The two series both reflect the variety of changes we have created to our environment as well as  the unique change and regrowth of the climate, this is seen to struggle and adapt to our effects. The changes of Border Cantos were often a lot more subtle compared to the decaying appearance of Cancer Alley for example the landscape of Border Cantos shows lush grass that grows around borders and clear skies whilst on the other hand the deteriorating and over littered land displayed in the Cancer alley series depicts decay and the lands inability to cope with mans careless disposal of waste.

I was really intrigued by the representation the destruction and deterioration of the natural land due to of waste in this photograph. The fogginess adds to the eeriness of the photograph. This is quite an uncomfortable photograph to view, the stillness of the water accompanied by the vast amounts of rubbish emphasize a sense of abandonment, even with the array of waste, there is still a sense of barrenness thru ought the photograph. The photograph depicts a sense of lifelessness from the effects of human consumption and the effects of how society carelessly uses the environment until it is no longer useful. I think this is one of his most jarring photographs which is a  honest reflection of the effects of people on the environment.

Night Fishing, Near Bonnet Carré Spillway, Norco, Louisiana, 1998

In this photograph, we can see a fisherman fishing along a seemingly quiet lake in the foreground, onlooking a bustling and almost chaotic appearing industrial city, which the lights reflecting off of the still surface of the lake. I like the contrast of energy and colour on the different sides of the lake, one being calm, natural, uneven and dark in contrast to the bright and industrialized city view in the background. As in many of Misrach’s photographs, this photograph has a very simple colour scheme of light grey, pale pastel colours as well as dark greens and browns as well as a soft clear sky. The blurry boat and an interesting and abstract effect. Overall I think the message that Misrach wanted to illustrate was both political and social, the fact that the person is so small in comparison to that else is in the photograph such as the immense size of the boat and the city in the background as well as the vastness of the lake is an example of our insignificance but also our power and ability to create and change the landscape in such a compelling way.

Outdoor Dining, Bonneville Salt Flats – Utah, 1992

This photograph was taken on the salt flats in Utah, which is a vast flat area of salt which goes for miles and miles. Similar to the first I like the simple yet memorable colour scheme and the minimalist components, such as how the ground is so similar to the sky in colour and texture, which makes the photograph appear more abstract. As a while the photograph appears unusual and almost surreal, as if someone had photo shopped furniture from a restaurant into and already unusual landscape, the mountains also look very out of place, the perfect line and contrast between the salt lake and the mountain makes it appear as if the the mountain hovers over the horizon.

His work is a reflection of the Americans peoples relationship with the landscape. He has done this by focusing on land where there is a clear depiction of the effects of humans such as waste products, building materials, but instead of most environmental photographers who focus on the more political message, he emphasizes the beauty of these landscapes, his work reflects a very intriguing aesthetic with his use of colour and hues. This focus on beauty and aesthetics emphasizes the romantic element in his work. There is also something very poetic about his work, the photographs are never overly cluttered and leave focus on the colours and composition. Also the most astonding feature about his work is even though it is a focus on the effects of people, there are very rarely people present in his photogrpahs, refelcting a certain uncanniness in his work.

Border Cantos

Fraenkel Gallery – Desert Cantos

Richard Misrach, Petrochemical America – Dan Grant