Huntington Gardens, California 1974

Editor: So this is John Gossage's "Huntington Gardens, California," a gelatin silver print from 1974. I'm immediately drawn to the stark contrast of the black and white and the sheer variety of textures in this seemingly desolate garden. It feels... manufactured, almost staged. What's your take on it? Curator: That “manufactured” feeling you perceive is precisely what interests me. Consider the labor required to construct and maintain such a garden in a desert environment, a concentrated space removed from the usual suburban sprawl. We must look at not just the plants, but also the social and economic resources enabling this curated landscape. Editor: So, it's not just about the plants, but about the act of cultivation itself? How the desert is forced to be something "else"? Curator: Exactly! The very act of creating and maintaining this "desert garden" within Huntington Gardens speaks volumes about control over natural resources and idealized landscapes. What does it say about the desire to control our environment? The material itself - the silver gelatin print - highlights the transformation of raw material through a process. How does that making change our reading of the landscape? Editor: So, the physical print becomes a lens through which we see this constructed environment? The materials and processes are crucial to its meaning? Curator: Precisely. Consider the energy consumed and waste produced by photographic practices, highlighting hidden social and environmental costs. Gossage prompts us to consider the material circumstances that allow for this photograph, and the garden itself, to exist. Editor: This makes me see the photograph as more than just a landscape, but as an art object documenting and critiquing its own existence. I see what you mean about the labor and making more clearly. Thanks. Curator: Indeed. By focusing on process, labor and consumption, Gossage invites us to critically consider our complex relationship with constructed landscapes and their representation.