RICHARD MISRACH: 11.21.11 5:40 PM

San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2013.. Oblong Folio. Hardbound, 15.5 x 11.75 in., 32 pages, 16 color illustrationsRichard Misrach has begun a series of artist books that explores the relationship between photography and time. Titled by the date and minute of the image—11.21.11 5:40 pm— the book features a central picture from a new series begun in November 2011, entitled “On The Beach 2.0.” It is both an extension of, and a dialogue with his earlier On the Beach project (2001–2005).Unbeknownst to them, the artist photographed a young couple on the beach in the late afternoon. From almost a block away one couldn’t tell what they were doing, but it appeared they were photographing the sunset. It was only back in the studio that he discovered they were making a self-portrait with their iPhone. For the artist, it was an epiphany: the couple and he were photographing the same subject at the same time. This uncanny picture embodies both a technological and cultural paradigm shift. The book is comprised of a 16-image sequence that links the two images. Richard Misrach is one of the most influential photographers of his generation. In the 1970s, he helped pioneer the renaissance of color photography and large-scale presentation that are in widespread practice today. Best known for his ongoing series, Desert Cantos, a multi-faceted approach to the study of place and man’s complex relationship to it, he has worked in the landscape for over 40 years. The recent chapter of the series, Border Cantos, made in collaboration with the experimental composer Guillermo Galindo, explores the unseen realities of the US-Mexico borderlands. This work was exhibited at the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and San Jose Museum of Art in 2016-17. Other notable bodies of work include his documentation of the industrial corridor along the Mississippi River known as “Cancer Alley”, the study of weather, time, color and light in his serial photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, and On The Beach, an aerial perspective of human interaction and isolation.Recent projects mark departures from his work to date. In one series, he has experimented with new advances in digital capture and printing, foregrounding the negative as an end in itself and digitally creating images with astonishing detail and color spectrum. In another, he built a powerful narrative out of images of graffiti produced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, made with a 4-megapixel pocket camera. In fall 2012, in collaboration with landscape architect Kate Orff, Misrach launched a major book and exhibition entitled Petrochemical America, which addresses the health and environmental issues associated with our dependency on oil.