Mohawk Yard, Glenville, New York 2 - 1991

James Welling made "Mohawk Yard, Glenville, New York," a black and white photograph, and it gives me a strange feeling. I imagine Welling out there, maybe it was a cold, grey day, just him and his camera, trying to capture the bleakness of this ordinary landscape. I wonder what he was thinking, looking through the lens. The power lines slicing through the sky, those stark trees lined up like soldiers. It’s kind of funny how we often think of landscape as nature, but this photograph reminds me of all the ways we humans have intervened. It's like he's having a conversation with photographers like Carleton Watkins, who captured the American West with such grandeur. But Welling's like, "Hey, let’s look at what’s in our backyard." There's a real beauty in finding something profound in the mundane, don't you think? It's this ongoing dialogue, each artist pushing the conversation forward.