San Jacinto Mountains Sequence 1985

Richard Misrach made this photograph, San Jacinto Mountains Sequence, without a date using photographic materials. Isn’t it funny how a desert scene can be so full? Full of sky, full of sand, full of something that feels like time. It’s almost like an Agnes Martin painting, a field of muted tones—pale yellows, soft blues—that vibrate with subtle shifts. The surface here feels crucial. Look at the granular texture of the sand, each tiny particle catching the light, and how it gives way to the hazy mountains in the background. There’s a tension between the specific and the atmospheric, a dance between presence and absence. My eye keeps getting drawn to the small dark circle in the mid-ground, what is it? It acts like a focal point. Like Vija Celmins’s drawings of the desert, Misrach creates an image that invites contemplation, reflecting on the nature of landscape and our place within it, embracing ambiguity.