Devil's Spine, Coos Bay, Oregon 1962

Minor White made this black and white photograph in Coos Bay, Oregon. I like how it is both a landscape and a close-up, so it could be either a huge mountain range or a tiny rock fragment. Looking at this image, I imagine White feeling his way along the stone, really looking, noticing these strange fissures and striations. It makes me think about the earth, the way it moves, and how things are forced to meet other things and break. The light in the photograph becomes a physical presence, like another material alongside the stone and whatever was used to make the print. It also makes me think about a long line of artists who photograph rocks – like Edward Weston - and find these inner landscapes within what seems so stable, so inert. I think artists look at each other and see different possibilities for seeing.