There are four major deserts in the United States – the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan. Despite variable weather conditions, Death Valley in the Mojave Desert is thought to be the hottest place on Earth during the summer. Whilst arid land makes farming and access to water difficult, much of these areas have been home to humans for centuries. Native Americans often called the deserts home, before European settlers and American communities began their attempt to make the space “habitable”. Thus we see a delicate coexistence emerge, with people both part of the landscape and distinct from it – leaving their mark on the environment. Richard Misrach is one of the most influential and internationally recognised photographers working today. He is known for work that explores the interplay between art, environment and the body, and for decades he has captured the influence of human activity on the American desert. His early work expanded the notion of traditional landscape photography, and he was instrumental in pioneering the use of colour photography and large-scale format in the 1970s. Now, Marc Selwyn Fine Art presents the renowned artist’s newest series, Dancing with Nature, which sees the Alonzo King LINES Ballet dancers showcase what humanity in harmony with nature can look like.
Misrach had his first taste of photography when he was studying psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967. There, he was confronted by the anti-war riots and protests that were raging across the country in response to the Vietnam War. Misrach began to photograph the events unfolding around him, and his desire to capture the counterculture that was happening in his own neighbourhood grew. His first major project, Telegraph, 3am (1974), depicted the homeless residents of Telegraph Avenue. After the collection was published, winning the Western Book Award in 1975, Misrach had hoped that it would spark motivation to improve life on the streets, but was frustrated by its lack of impact. In an interview with the Museum of Modern Art in 2022, he explained: “after a while, I pulled away from these pictures and stopped showing them. But now, 50 years later, I look at them and think, that’s what photography does. It records a historical moment. And this is valuable, but not for the reasons I had originally intended. It’s not going to change the subjects’ lives, but it does show us what people looked like, what they were wearing. You can feel attitudes. There’s a lot of really important information in the pictures. And I’m really glad now that I did it.” The lack of response to the photographs prompted Misrach to shift his attention to somewhere where humans are profoundly absent – the desert.
As his artistic focus shifted, he began work on the series considered his magnum opus. Desert Cantos is an ambitious ongoing project exploring the southwest American desert. The hallmark of Misrach’s work is the documentation of changes in the natural environment that have been wrought by various man-made factors such as urban sprawl, tourism, industrialisation, floods, fires, petrochemical manufacturing and the testing of explosives and nuclear weapons by the military. The collection is made up of 40 distinct but related groups of pictures, each one exploring a different facet of the relationship between humans and nature and many focus on natural, or man-made, disasters like floods or fires.
In 1991, the Oakland-Berkeley fire raged just a few miles from Misrach’s studios, killing 25 people and destroying more than 3,500 dwellings. He took hundreds of photos of the aftermath, but a desire to show respect to the victims meant that the images were not exhibited until 2011. The collection reveals a landscape reduced to ash, littered with the remnants of human habitation – a melted plastic tricycle, a burnt-out car, abandoned patio furniture. Meanwhile, the most recent chapter of the Desert Cantos series, Border Cantos explored the unseen realities of the US-Mexico border. It was made in collaboration with artist and musician Guillermo Galindo, who created instruments out of artifacts like clothing, shotgun shells and toys found along the border fence. Misrach’s large-scale photographs evoke the raw authority of the wall, whilst simultaneously capturing the uneasy quiet that pervades the US side of the border, offering an insight into the realities of life in a situation that prompts much political debate.
In the wake of the 2016 US Presidential election, Misrach took to photographing spray painted messages scrawled across abandoned buildings in desolate areas of the Desert Southwest. Desert Canto XXXIX: The Writing on the Wall (2017 – ongoing) reflects the pervasive theme of Misrach’s career – the influence of humans on the natural environment and their almost confrontational ability to capture the anger or despondency of those forgotten by mainstream political ideas. In this way, it is reminiscent of Telegraph, 3am. These series reflect the sentiment of many living on the fringes of society, outside of large cities and metropolises. In an interview with the Guardian, the artist said: “for over 30 years I have been looking for places where nature and culture collide…they tell us a lot about America and the larger world. There’s a universal, primitive need to write on everything that goes back to Ancient Egypt and cave painting. Even though I focus on the deserts, I know you’d find the same thing in every state in the union.” Despite the images containing no actual people, Misrach succeeds in capturing the feeling of a nation.
This new exhibition at Marc Selwyn Fine Art has a distinct sense of optimism about it. Misrach captures the Alonzo King LINES Ballet dancers in their intuitive and graceful movements, allowing the dancers freedom to respond to the natural environment with self-direction, saying: “photography captures things in the world that are not choreographed for perfect form.” Their bodies stretch and bend, becoming almost sculptural as they stand atop craggy rocks and on the edge of the ocean. Their movements echo the rhythmic shifts of the tide or the sway of the waves. Rather than presenting humanity as at odds with nature, here, Misrach finds hope in capturing the human spirit in harmony with the natural world.
Richard Misrach: Dancing with Nature is at Marc Selwyn Fine Art until 17 August.
Image Credits:
1. Ocean Ballet #1 (Positive), 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.
2. Maddie, Adji and Shuaib, On the Cliffs, Spitting Cave, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.
3. Dancers, On the Cliffs, Spitting Cave #2, 2022. Image courtesy of artist.
4. Adji and Shuaib (Cellphone #1), On the Cliffs, Spitting Cave, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.
