Capitol Reef, Utah 1962

Minor White made this gelatin silver print, Capitol Reef, Utah, sometime in the twentieth century. It looks like an abstract expressionist painting doesn't it? But it's a photograph of a rock face! The dark, almost monochromatic palette and smooth surface of the rock give the piece a painterly quality. It is a lesson in the deceptiveness of surface. The photograph has a beautiful sheen, and the light reflects in a way that reveals every subtle undulation. There’s a sharp line slashing through the top of the image, a scar that disrupts the surface. Below this, a strange shape appears, like a trick of the light, obscuring the boundary between the real and the represented. White's work reminds me a little of Alfred Stieglitz's cloud studies; photographs that aimed to capture the essence of a feeling. Like Stieglitz, White invites us to consider the emotional resonance of the natural world, and the way in which abstract forms can evoke profound feelings.