Stonehenge #1

Richard Misrach first earned widespread attention with his series of Stonehenge photographs. They combine his formal and material interests in the photographic medium with the subject matter that would come to dominate his practice: the monumentally man-made. Here, Misrach’s treatment of Stonehenge draws attention to both the constructed quality of this age-old monumental rock and its mystical properties. The harsh flash illuminates the rock to the point of luminosity; it literally glows in the dark. The selenium toning, a process applied to the print, further accentuates this artificial glow and imbues the photograph with a sense of the otherworldly.