Wellfleet, Cape Cod 1904

Arthur Wesley Dow made this dreamy cyanotype, a photographic printing process that gives off a cyan-blue print, somewhere in Wellfleet, Cape Cod. It’s hard to look at the work and not feel transported to another time and place. The whole scene is awash in this mesmerizing blue. The textured grass in the foreground leads your eye up to the small building and windswept tree. Dow captures the scene with a simplicity that makes you feel as if you are alone, out there. The lack of detail, almost like a drawing from memory, allows the shapes and forms to stand out, creating a calming sense of harmony. He was interested in how art could be a tool for spiritual expression, something he shared with other photographers of the time, like Alfred Stieglitz. Like them, his photographs suggest art can be felt as much as seen.