Tucson, Arizona
1976
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 26.5 x 39.7 cm (10 7/16 x 15 5/8 in.) sheet: 35.5 x 42.9 cm (14 x 16 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Accession Number
2001.67.226
Art Historical Context
Henry Wessel's *Tucson,* (1976) captures the stark beauty of the American Southwest in a classic gelatin silver print, a medium prized for its rich tonal range and sharp detail that brings out subtle textures in light and shadow. Measuring 26.5 x 39.7 cm, this photograph exemplifies Wessel's mastery of the "New Topographics" style—a movement that emerged in the mid-1970s, the mundane intersections of nature and human development with unadorned objectivity. Photographers like Wessel shifted focus from romantic landscapes to the everyday sprawl of suburbs and cities, revealing quiet truths about...
About the Artist
Henry Wessel
Henry Wessel (1942–2018) was an American photographer celebrated for his spare, clear-eyed photographs of everyday life in the American West and beyond. Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, he studied at Pennsylvania State University and later at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he worked with the influential photographer Minor White. White's emphasis on photography as a medium of carefu...