Old Hanford City Site and the Columbia River, Hanford Nuclear Reservation, near Richland, Washington 1986

Emmet Gowin made this photograph of the Old Hanford City Site and the Columbia River with gelatin silver. It's a picture that really gets under your skin, the sharp focus and high contrast pulling you into the ruined landscape. It’s like an etching, but instead of acid on metal, it's light on silver. The way he captures the texture of the land, the dry, cracked earth meeting the flowing river, you can almost feel the dust and the heat. Gowin’s framing divides the composition between the natural curves and organic textures of the river on the left and the unnatural geometries of the ruined city on the right. Look at those rigid grid lines disappearing into the horizon, so different from the ever-changing reflections on the water. Like the New Topographics photographers, Gowin forces us to contemplate the traces we leave on the land, and maybe how they will look to future generations.