PHOTOGRAPHS
Misrach, Richard
U.S. (1949 - )
San Gorgonio Pass
1981
Chromogenic color (Ektacolor) print
26 3/4 x 34 in. (67.9 x 86.4 cm) image size; 28 1/4 x 35 in. (71.8 x 88.9 cm) exposed sheet size; 35 1/2 x 42 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. (90.2 x 107.3 x 3.8 cm) frame size
Gift of Maren and Jeffry Grainger-Monsen
FA 2009.98

Richard Misrach’s San Jacinto Pass presents a play in scale between the immensity of the desert and the attempts by humans to tame it. As part of his Desert Cantos: The Highway series, San Jacinto Pass illustrates Misrach’s philosophy of embracing the world as it is. As interesting and provocative as the cultural geography might be, the desert may serve better as the backdrop for the problematic relationship between man and the environment. The human struggle, the successes and failures, the use and abuse, both noble and foolish, are readily apparent in the desert. Symbols and relationships seem to arise that stand for the human condition itself. It is a simple, if almost incomprehensible, equation: The world is as terrible as it is beautiful, but when you look more closely, it is as beautiful as it is terrible.

-- Label copy for Shifting Ground: Transformed Views of the American Landscape, February 10 to August 20, 2000.