I had the honor to meet up with Richard Misrach again last weekend when he was signing copies of his new book “Cargo” at Arcana Books in Culver City. Richard is an iconic photographer, and I remember my professors at Arizona State University showing us his work back in the 1980’s. He is one of the best photographers of our time and he is a gentleman. If you ever have a chance to hear him speak or look at his work, take it you will be glad you did.

“Cargo” was published by Aperture this year and is described on Amazon as follows:

Richard Misrach: Cargo presents the acclaimed photographer’s sublime meditation on the often-unseen patterns of global trade and commerce. In 2021, on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, at its height, seemed to nearly halt the networks of international trade, Misrach began taking thousands of photographs of cargo ships as they moved to and from the Port of Oakland, California. In these monumental seascapes, cargo ships appear frozen in time—diminutive but stalwart—within an expansive, richly colored confluence of sea, sky, and atmosphere. Eerie, sparse, and undeniably beautiful, Misrach’s images abstractly trace multiple histories: the recent collapse and slow recovery of these seafaring trade routes, the confrontation of the human and natural environment in an era of climate disaster, and a rich lineage of maritime art.

Fraenkel Gallery, who represents Misrach, listed outstanding examples of the images in the book on their website.

The images are fantastic, and the print quality of the book is outstanding; it is an Aperture project of course it is good. I really loved how they included a map of the area where Misrach was photographing these ships. Not only dis that make the book a more complete document it also showcased how much our world can change around everyday and how wonderful it is when we take notice of the subtle differences.

I also added something very special to my library; I purchased a copy of Richard Misrach - Chronologies. Published in 2005 by Fraenkel Gallery this may be the most beautifully printed books I have ever purchased, it is amazing. They only had a few copies available on site and as soon as I looked through it I wanted one. The book was published at an assumed midpoint of Misrach’s career and there are so many images in this book that I remember first seeing almost forty years ago. Fraenkel Gallery describes the book on their website and still has copies available.

This past year the Autry Museum in Los Angeles and the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana both had exhibitions of some amazing photographs by the masters. Bowers had its final exhibition in a series on Edward Weston's work and the Autry highlighted Group f/64 and Richard Misrach's photographs from the Bank of America collection. I believe it so important to see prints by the masters of our craft for a photographer to really have the understanding of what a good print looks like. I remember early in my career getting to see, and hold, a Weston pepper print and learning so much from that experience. Another important exhibition I saw was SFMOMA commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ansel Adams where they exhibited 100 of his prints curated by John Szarkowski. What I enjoyed most in that exhibition was seeing prints of the same image that were printed at different times in Ansel's career. It really highlighted how he honed his craft as a master printer.

My only criticism of these two exhibitions was the lighting in the galleries at both venues. At the Autry it was too dim and you couldn't see print detail. I especially remember two split toned images by Misrach which looked they were beautiful but there wasn't enough light on them to show the green and purple tones. The lighting at Bowers was inconsistent, one image would be lit perfectly then the next would have fall off that prevented the viewer from seeing the full beauty of the image.

As a side note, here are some favorite works I saw at the Autry on my last visit (I am Maynard Dixon) :

Billy Schenck

James Doolin

Maynard Dixon

Frederic Remington

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