Cottonwood Bench Above River, Cache la Poudre River Possibly 1996 - 1999

William Wylie made this gelatin silver print, Cottonwood Bench Above River, with light and shadow, it's all about tones of grey. It makes you consider photography as a process, not just as a record. Look at the way the light catches the plastic caught on the branch in the foreground. It's almost like Wylie is painting with the camera, using the contrast to sculpt the scene. The texture of the grass, the way it bends and sways, it gives the image a real sense of depth. You can almost feel the wind. It reminds me a little of some of Frederick Sommer's desert landscapes, that same attention to detail, that same sense of quiet melancholy. But Wylie's got his own thing going on, a way of finding beauty in the overlooked, the discarded, the everyday. It's a good reminder that art is all about seeing, really seeing, the world around you.