Untitled, from the series Meadow, Carlisle, Massachusetts

Media - 2008.2.27 - SAAM-2008.2.27_1 - 67868
Copied Barbara Bosworth, Untitled, from the series Meadow, Carlisle, Massachusetts, 2004, chromogenic print, sheet and image: 3240 in. (81.3101.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Haluk and Elisa Soykan, 2008.2.27, © 2004, Barbara Bosworth

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled, from the series Meadow, Carlisle, Massachusetts
Date
2004
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet and image: 3240 in. (81.3101.6 cm)
Copyright
© 2004, Barbara Bosworth
Credit Line
Gift of Haluk and Elisa Soykan
Mediums Description
chromogenic print
Classifications
Keywords
  • Landscape — tree
  • Landscape — road — path
  • Landscape — Massachusetts — Carlisle
Object Number
2008.2.27

Artwork Description

Bosworth does not always photograph the landscapes we have been led to expect; instead we see charred timber; a highway underpass alight with birds; a hiker's lookout surveying an interchange. These are not images of a remote wilderness secluded from contact, yet we are still surrounded by the pleasures of the natural world: a cold river skimmed by the palm of the hand or the pulsing rush of a waterfall. Her photographs are peopled with tourists, friends, family, and sometimes the artist herself: "As a photographer I am interested not just in the terrain but in the ways we interact with our environment. I began to make panoramic photographs as a way to impart a greater sense of the land, to convey the experience of being surrounded by the landscape."

The large-scale color prints from the series Meadow were all made within a space of several acres just outside suburban Boston. Photographed along the intersection of manicured fields and rough brush and bramble, the meadow is home to blackberries and wild roses, nesting birds, fireflies, coyotes, and an occasional black bear. We watch as the sunlight angles and shifts through each season, and the dense growth of the meadow opens and closes around this compact and intimate world.

Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth exhibition label