“I’ve come to believe that beauty can be a very powerful conveyor of difficult ideas”
(Misrach, 2020:86)
I found Misrach’s work and writing a bit enigmatic. I feel a lot of affinity with what he is trying to do, or says he is trying to do. But I often find the images a little disappointing. So this makes for a useful analysis of why that is.
Misrach was studying maths and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, when he started to record the political upheaval at the time on a 35mm camera. “Photography and political engagement blossomed simultaneously for me … in a way, my work over the last fifty years has been about navigating these two extremes” (Misrach, 2020:10). This interests me because I think it is very hard to campaign effectively, for example on environmental issues, while working in the Fine Art. The need to produce large, aesthetic images is not necessarily compatible – this is not to say they cannot carry a message, but the message is usually quite subtle. Perhaps this has worked best for someone like Salgado with reforestation, or with Nick Brandt on wildlife, both of whom have used sales from their beautiful and expensive prints and books to set up foundations that then seek to raise money. But making representations of environmental problems directly may put a drag on this virtuous circle. It’s an issue I’m still working through – for example with reference to Burtynsky but also I’ve discussed it when reviewing the work of Poulomi Basu (https://documentary515050.wordpress.com/2021/08/02/dbpfp21/) who seems to manage the issue by campaigning in parallel to her fine art work.
Misrach himself discusses this, seeing his work as a synthesis of the two Adams, Ansel and Robert – the former showed the ideal that needed to be saved, the latter the damage that had been done. Misrach wants his pictures to draw you in – “to seduce you into looking in order to pay attention to the complicated issues they address”. I completely agree with this aesthetic requirement of photography. However perhaps the question is what happens next – do people look and then move on? Perhaps in the fine art framework wealthy collectors are the people that should be targeted as they have the money to donate. I guess I am interested in whether this actually works (more research?), or whether a more direct way of campaigning, is more effective? Particularly when it comes to changing behaviour – do the NYC socialites enjoy the images with their champagne, maybe buy one, then head off in their big cars or gas guzzling jets. Burtynsky himself notes: “‘I arrive in my car of iron, filled with gas, pull out a metal tripod and grab film made with silver’ – and shoot yet another example of resource-plundering’ but makes the counterpoint that “at the same time, they allow the viewer a vantage point to consider the damage wreaked in the name of economic growth” (Guardian, 2008).
Misrach took up photography instead of going to Grad School, working for minimum wage at the Associated Student of the University of California (ASUC) sleeping in a van and printing all night for free in the ASUC darkroom. Very pertinently he says “You can certainly keep photography as a hobby, but a career requires a thousand percent commitment” (Misrach, 2020:12).
Misrach mentions Frederick Somner as a particular influence, “the most sophisticated … his pictures … were more cerebral, even conceptual … they were less about the subject and more about photography” (Misrach, 2020:15). Note – check out Somner.
So interestingly Misrach did not start with landscape, instead literally following a dream he had that he should use a tripod to photograph down Telegraph Avenue. Using his Hasselblad on the tripod “slowed me down, creating a more formal interaction … enabled my sitters to be more part of the process” (Misrach, 2020:16). I too am preferring more and more this more considered approach – however it also generates less images and I have been advised previously (Sicily workshop) to try and shoot more. Misrach got his subjects to look straight at the camera (and therefore the viewer) hence acknowledging their participation, and shot in black and white.
For this project he was mentored and influenced by Roger Minick, particularly Delta West (see https://www.rogerminick.com/delta-west) who after he had finished the project advised him to work on it for a further six months. This led him to start photographing at night and eventually to the theme and title of his project Telegraph 3AM, after the Scott Fitzgerald quote “In the dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning” (Misrach, 2020:20).
Hence he expresses the opinion (I think that most photographers stop too soon … if you can remain open a little longer, you increase your odds of doing something truly new” (Misrach, 2020:20). On the subject of keeping with things, he also says “stick with one project, one camera, one lens. They will become natural to you, like a language. You can always learn other languages later” (Misrach, 2020:18).
Perhaps what is most interesting about this project, and most formative for Misrach, is what happened next. He secured a joint exhibition with Minick at the ICP in NYC, a career game changer … however when he arrived for the opening nobody turned up. He assumed the impact of his pictures would change opinions of life on the streets, but “I quickly learned that there was a major discrepancy between my good intentions and how images actually function in the world” (Misrach, 2020:24) – I still find that many of Misrach’s images are too quiet to have impact…???
Although he moves from portraits to landscape, in a way Misrach does not drift too far in that his next project is “portraits” of cacti at night in the desert. He is still shooting black and white at this stage, although also using flash. Similarly “in virtually all my work, if there’s a subject, it’s smack in the middle” (Misrach, 2020:26).
Misrach talks of the “prolonged moment” (Misrach, 2020:28) as opposed to the decisive moment, recording the light of stars and passing cars (note similarities with my night work on Ashdown Forest). He lights the subjects with a handheld portable flash (I preferred a torch), wandering around the scene to do so in a way he compares to performance art. “Whatever else photography is about, it’s about time” (Misrach, 2020:28). Later in the book he will add, appropriately: “When you’re making art, what you’re really attempting is to create something that transcends the moment” (Misrach, 2020:85)
When it is windy, the flash will freeze the subject and the long exposure will create a second imprint like a double exposure, or a shadow on the sky that makes it seem like a backdrop (more noticeable in Fig. 3 below) – “I have learned to embrace my mistakes” (Misrach, 2020:36).
Similarly a broken shutter in Hawaii led him to a horizontal crop and thence a different format camera. Now he is using colour, capturing the jungle at night with a flash. Very interesting (for me) is the evolution of his attitude to colour – “I became interested in exploring how we see colour … only colour could reveal the infinite hues of green that words are incapable of describing” (Misrach, 2020:36).
I would take several issues with this – firstly the greens in Misrach’s images seem somewhat muted to me, although I would allow that others (specifically Martin Parr) have said my digital greens go a little too far. I have been out on the Forest to compare directly my printed greens with the actual and they seem to match up, raising the question of personal interpretation of colour as well as the accuracy of representation.
With Misrach’s work I think there is an issue with the flash, which will tend to bleach out the subtle differences in colour?
Thankfully Misrach expounds on the latter when he looks at the purple sky in his night jungle pictures, acknowledging that this is not how humans see it – “it’s a photographic colour … the language of colour is not that of realism here. It occurred to me that all of photography is interpretation. It’s primary illusion is realism, but ultimately it only uses real elements for expression.” (Misrach, 2020:39). Hence we begin to concur again, and indeed he seems to arrive at a similar conclusion to that of my essay (https://documentary515050.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/4-revised-can-you-photograph-an-orange-in-black-white/).
Then we come in the text to “scale and colour are as important as the content of the picture. They need to be implemented with intention.” (Misrach, 2020:40). Let’s put aside the relative importance, and perhaps make passing comment on the fact that “intention” implies that colour is almost always manipulated in some way (or used in a manipulative way) when it is successful. Scale is a key question for Misrach’s work, and others like it (perhaps Burtynsky for example). Misrach moved to large format to be able to make big prints without losing detail. Looking at his work in a small format book such as the Aperture series probably does not do it justice – it is always preferable to see the exhibition prints where possible, but for this type of work more so. Combining intentioned colour with size can result in a quiet print that impacts the viewer with the scope of the landscape and makes some of the smaller details sing (or pop, to use an instagram filter term).
Another key aspect for Misrach – “the light you choose to photograph in is a key aesthetic decision” (Misrach, 2020:44). This is perhaps an issue for my recent work – arriving at the point of shooting some of my last documentary series at Harvest Home took a lot of trying to patiently seize the moment, so getting ideal light as well was an overstretch, particularly in winter. Solutions include keep trying longer and harder, and using a flash or perhaps the new Rotolight? I’ve spent a lot of time in post playing with contrast in various ways, which has worked to an extent (but note would not work so well in colour). Misrach’s comparative grids of light changing on a desert scene do have a quiet beauty, mesmerising if not impactful.
Misrach is refreshingly honest about his success rate: “When I was first shooting with the view camera, about two pictures out of every hundred were good. After twenty-five years of using the 8×10, my percentage hasn’t improved much” (Misrach, 2020:50). Digital perhaps change this, and Misrach now uses digital medium format and even phone photography – “don’t be afraid of change, embrace it” (Misrach, 2020:123). I note the similarity with Nick Knight’s comment at Photo London this year, and indeed the approach of many “great” photographers.
The view camera changes Misrach’s work – he has to get used to seeing upside down. Also his son is born and he develops an interest in environmental issues, thinking of the future. His work in the desert takes on a new aspect. Then two fires, in his darkroom and in an independent lab where he stores his negatives, lead him to focus on fire in the desert.
Interestingly a search for the image above results in very different colour renditions depending on how it has been re-represented (I also commented on this in my last essay), even across institutions such as NGA, Phillips, Sothebys and SFMOMA. In fact the one that most matched the Aperture book was on Artsy. Misrach describes the image as a “keeper”, but looking at later photos from the series where he describes choosing between #248 and #249 due to differences in angle making the fire more 3-dimensional to the viewer, this is true but also a bit like having to explain a joke – the moment is lost on the viewer because it was not that obvious in the first place (again the impact issue)?
It is Misrach’s work on floods in the desert that made the biggest impression on me, perhaps because of the alien concept and how it points at something really wrong but also because of the visual impact it achieves combined with the wonderful desert light interacting with a body of water – this is the photographer’s defining image for me, capturing everything he has to say and beautifully:
Misrach spends time throughout the book talking about his approach to projects. “Whenever I’ve had a preconceived idea for a project, it’s never panned out. My best projects are sparked by driving and looking with an open mind – being aggressively receptive” (Misrach, 2020:56). The penultimate word seems out of place in the author’s vocabulary, although the open mind (which is also the approach encouraged by OCA at the start of Level 3) certainly seems to hit the mark. I’ve discussed this wrt hunting and Ginzberg – the hunter needs to relax into the ground, coming to know it well, developing the ability to spot anomalies. There is nothing aggressive about this – it is almost passive, although certainly alert. Strangely, a comparison is with one of my hobbies, wing chun kung fu – the practitioner stays relaxed so the reactions are fast and appropriate to whatever may come, but must also be ready for this. Tension leads to slowness and expectation leads to being caught out by the unexpected. But it is the unexpected we are trying to capture in camera.
Misrach continues to work on his Desert Cantos – (strictly cantos are subcomponents of a poem or song, and he works with other artists such as writers and composers). For Border Cantos he works with Guillermo Galindo, who makes instruments out of artifacts left by migrants crossing. Misrach says the border wall can be thought of as landscape art as with, for example, Running Fence by Christo and Jeanne-Claude but surely the point of the latter is that it is a collaborative work involving political negotiation to cross boundaries, whereas the wall is the exact opposite in every respect?
He has also worked with Kate Orff to produce narrative atlas images for Petrochemical America. These are interesting and remind me a little of the information panels at Rye Harbour Nature reserve…
The square with the cloud in above is actually an incorporation of Misrach’s Norco Cumulus Clouse, Shell Oil, another image that leans on its context but at scale probably gains the required impact once the refinery that creates the cloud (which is apparently permanent) can be seen by the viewer. The Dow Chemical waste containment image is like this – undeniably beautiful but difficult to read without the context – the fence that cannot contain the waste due to flooding. This is how Misrach wants his photographs to work, and they do, although the question remains as to whether that leads to change. Misrach recorded 100 petrochemical plants on a 120 mile stretch of the Mississippi river, gradually destroying the neighbouring rural communities…
It may take him a year to find a new project, so tries to work on two simultaneously so that he is not left without when he finishes one. He normally never crops or edits content, but has started to do that for abstract pictures although feels this is wrong for documentary. I would agree, although it does depend on the context provided with the images – if they are presented as factual representations they should not be altered. Although having written this I realise it depends what is meant by altered – for example most digital practitioners will sharpen; they may adjust contrast; quite possibly they will play with the colour balance; they may tidy up a messy corner, for example a stray branch…where do you draw the line. Firstly I think there is representational integrity – the integrity of the photographer and also whether what they are showing is a fair visual description. Then there is what they claim for the image by context – are the image and text conspiring to tell a story that is not true, for example?
Progressing beyond this nest of vipers, Misrach asks two questions of his images during the edit:
- How do they work as a book?
- How do they work on the wall?
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Misrach, R. (1974) Dennis and Rusty. At: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Richard-Misrach-Dennis-and-Rusty-Telegraph-Avenue-Berkeley-CA-1972-C-Richard_fig2_317987559 (Accessed 17.6.2022)
- Misrach, R. (1976) Creosote Bush in the Wind. At: https://www.crockerart.org/collections/american-art-after-1945/artworks/bush-6-arizona-1977 (Accessed 17.6.2022)
- Misrach, R. (1978) Hawaii XV. At: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/richard-misrach-untitled-hawaii-xv (Accessed 17.6.2022)
- Misrach, R. (1983) Desert Fire #1. At: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/richard-misrach-desert-fire-number-1-burning-palms (Accessed 17.6.2022)
- Misrach, R. (1983) Submerged Gas Pumps. At: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/185913 (Accessed 17.6.2022)
- Orff, K. (2012) The Ecology of Waste. At: https://placesjournal.org/article/illuminating-the-petrochemical-landscape/
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Guardian (2008) Opinion: In praise of … Edward Burtynsky. At: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/may/14/photography (Accessed 2022.06.17)
- Misrach, R. (2020) on Landscape and Meaning. New York: Aperture
Level 3.1 Learning Log 
2 thoughts on “on Landscape and Meaning”