upwards, presenting distilled views of desert skies
that are quietly beautiful in a way that potentially
references traditions in abstract painting. The over-
whelming sense of scale suggests the greater power of
natural forces as opposed to human agency. Yet in
The Skies, the individual titles of the photographs
noting their location, such as ‘‘Mecca, California’’ or
‘‘Jerusalem Mountain, Arizona,’’ must surely be
understood as topographical signifiers. Similarly, in
the night sky images ofHeavenly Bodies,whereMis-
rach’s camera records the movement of stars, planet,
and aircraft, location plays an important part in the
formation of meaning. Arousal of the issue of cul-
tural ownership comes when the viewer realizes these
are skies over Native American desert lands. Even at
his most subtle, Misrach maintains a connection to
his political motivations.
Equally, when working in new landscapes out-
side of the western states, the photographer sus-
tains a keen interest in the juxtaposition between
humans and nature. In 1998, Misrach received a
‘‘Picturing the South’’ commission from the High
Museum of Art, Atlanta. For this project, he
photographed an area along the Mississippi River
between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, popularly
but distressingly known as Cancer Alley. While
recognized as a seat of great antebellum cultural
history, the natural resources of this area have also
been ravaged by decades of pollution from the
petro-chemical industry. Here again, inPictures
from the South(1998–2000), in images of vibrant
green polluted swamps, Misrach’s seductive rich
color photographs challenge the viewer to consider
the often sickening results of human agency in the
environment.
Works from Misrach’s recent seriesOn the Beach
(2003) are similarly unnerving. Inspired by Nevil
Shute’s 1950s post-apocalyptic novel set in a world
slowly dying from the effects of an atomic war,
Misrach captures figures within a vast expanse of
a beach or water. Often the view is unsettling and
anonymous. Human subjects are dwarfed by their
empty but exquisite surroundings. It is through
such minimal and serene beauty that Richard Mis-
rach’s social concerns are consistently and perhaps
most cleverly revealed. And while he may not have
been the first to bring politics into the discourse of
landscape photography, he is certainly one of the
most successful contemporary artists to use a strat-
egy of juxtaposition between aesthetics and an
informed ecocritical polemic.
Sara-JayneParsonsBiography
Born in Los Angeles, California, 1949; University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley, B.A., Psychology, 1971; National Endow-
ment for the Arts Visual Artist’s Fellowship, 1973;
Western Book Award forTelegraph 3 A.M.(Cornucopia
Press, 1974), 1975; Ferguson Grant, Friends of Photogra-
phy, Carmel, California, 1976; National Endowment for
the Arts Fellowship, 1977; John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Fellowship, 1979; International Center for
Photography Infinity Award forDesert Cantos, 1988; Sil-
ver Medal Award at the International Book Design Exhi-
bition forDesert Cantos, Leipzig, Germany, 1989; Eureka
Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco,
1991; PEN Literary Award forBravo 20: The Bombing
of the American West, 1991; Media Alliance Meritorious
Award forBravo 20: The Bombing of the American West,
1991; Koret Israel Prize, 1992; National Endowment for
the Arts Fellowship, 1992; Distinguished Career in Photo-
graphy Award, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Stu-
dies, 1994; Golden Light Award, Best Retrospective Book
forCrimes and Splendors, Maine Photographic Work-
shops, 1996;Picturing the South, a commission from the
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1998; Photo-eye Books
Best Contemporary Monograph for 2000, runner-up, for
The Sky Book, 2000; Kulturpreis for Lifetime Achieve-
ment in Photography, German Society of Photography,- Living in Berkeley, California.
Individual Exhibitions
1977 Richard Misrach: Night Work; Oakland Museum;
Oakland, California; ARCO Center for Visual Arts;
Los Angeles, California
1979 Richard Misrach: Night Desert Photographs; Muse ́e
National d’Arte Moderne; Paris, France; Camera
Obscura Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden; and Grapestake
Gallery; San Francisco, California
1983 Richard Misrach: Recent Desert Photographs;Los
Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles, California;
1984 Richard Misrach: Color Desert Landscapes; Etherton
Gallery, Tucson, Arizona; Blue Sky Gallery, Portland,
Oregon; Elizabeth Leach Gallery; Portland, Oregon
1985 Richard Misrach: Recent Work; Fraenkel Gallery; San
Francisco, California
1986 Richard Misrach: Four Cantos; Houston Center for
Photography; Houston, Texas
1988 Richard Misrach: Desert Cantos; Art Institute of Chi-
cago; Chicago, Illinois and National Gallery of Art;
Wellington, New Zealand
1990 Desert Canto VI: The Pit; The Photographers’ Gallery,
London and Parco Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1991 Bravo 20; Ansel Adams Center, Friends of Photogra-
phy; San Francisco; Blue Sky Gallery; Portland; Oregon;
and California Museum of Photography; Riverside,
California
1992 Desert Canto XII: Clouds (non-equivalents); Jan Kes-
ner Gallery; Los Angeles, California
1994 Desert Canto XVIII: Skies; Jan Kesner Gallery; Los
Angeles, California
1995 Pictures of Paintings; Fraenkel Gallery; San Francisco,
CaliforniaMISRACH, RICHARD