Untitled (lawn with car in driveway) c. 1970s

Curator: John Gossage’s gelatin silver print, "Untitled (lawn with car in driveway)" offers a slice of American suburbia. The image itself measures about 27 by 34 centimeters. Editor: It feels...stark. That black and white drains any sense of cozy nostalgia right out. The car looks almost sinister lurking there. Curator: Gossage often focused on the overlooked, the banal landscapes shaped by human activity. He lets the photographic process speak. The paper stock, the development, the scale of the print itself, all these material decisions contribute to meaning. Editor: It’s like a stage set, and the car is waiting for its cue. I wonder what sort of lives are being lived behind those pruned bushes. Curator: The absence of people is key. We are left to consider the systems at play, the economics of lawn care, car ownership, the very construction of the suburban dream. Editor: There’s a quiet melancholy to it that I wasn’t expecting. Curator: Indeed, and it's through his mastery of photographic materials and deliberate focus that Gossage evokes such complex feelings from such ordinary subject matter. Editor: Well, it certainly makes you think, doesn't it? It's more than just a picture of a car and a lawn, that's for sure.