Untitled [field c. 20th century

James Bartlett Rich made this untitled photograph, a small toned silver print, to capture a field and its borders. Look at how the light and shadow create a moody scene. The texture of the trees and the rough path are balanced by the soft focus. The gray tones almost flatten the image, and yet your eye can travel into the distance of the field. A fence acts as a frame, or maybe a passage into the wildness. The way the trees bend overhead gives the image a sense of enclosure, a feeling of being in a secret place. It reminds me of the work of Eugène Atget, who also documented quiet, unassuming scenes of everyday life. In both artists work, it's about finding beauty in the mundane, turning the ordinary into something extraordinary. Art is like that, it takes what's already there and makes you see it in a new way.