Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005] Possibly 2005 - 2010

Richard Misrach made this photograph of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. What catches my eye is the way the light falls so evenly, almost blankly, on the scene, like it's refusing to pick a side. The materiality here isn't paint, but reality, raw and unsettling. Look at the debris scattered in front of the house – wood, trash, and vegetation all tangled together. And then that sign, stark white against the chaos: "Garage Sale, 50% Off." It's so ordinary, so absurd in this context, it becomes deeply disturbing. The pink shutters on the house feel equally out of place, like a child’s doll house thrown into a war zone. The image is full of contradiction. This reminds me a little of the deadpan photography of the New Topographics movement, those artists who found beauty or horror in the mundane. It's that feeling that there isn't one fixed way to interpret what we're seeing, which is, for me, the real power of art.