DESERT CANTOS Richard Misrach at the Art Institute
Misrach is good at capturing changing light and the subtleties of atmospheric conditions. In the canto “Desert Seas” are several views of the Salton Sea, a desert lake in southern California, that are reminiscent of Turner’s seascapes in the gradation of color and the melding of the air and water tones. The effect is simply beautiful.
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Hales’s photos show a wilderness experience–if you can call the view from a Winnebago or the Old Faithful snack shop wilderness–that has been sanitized and regimented, when that experience should offer freedom from regimentation. In his images of Cal Johnson’s World-Record Muskie Bar and Grill in Hayward, Wisconsin, Hales documents the stuffed animals that have been set up in lighted dioramas next to a jukebox. We should hope that the American wilderness beyond the parking lots and scenic overlooks does not suffer the same fate.
