William (Willy) S. Sutton‘s fine book of western landscapes—lands in the ‘public trust’—came out recently. I had the opportunity to spend an evening with him last spring at the marvelous home he built for his family in the mountains west of Boulder. We looked through many of the original (beautiful!) prints he was preparing for the book. The comparisons to Ansel Adams will doubtless be made, but there are significant differences—and indeed, these images share perhaps only three factors—one is the landscape itself, another is the technical format of the images, and the third is particularity of vision. Beyond these basics, as an individual image-maker with a singular individual vision, Sutton demonstrates with his images a profoundly subtle relationship with the situation. The fascination of ‘making landscape photographs’ for some lies in the embodied relationship that the image-maker feels for the place, the places, (and clearly being in the places). Mr. Sutton’s relationship with these places is precisely, amply, and ineffably mapped out in these images. The drama in making a landscape image lies at least in part in the subtlety of the Light that reflects from the land to the mind’s eye. But that eye may often be filtering: is often always filtering the Light energy that arrives in mind. The neural system is selective in what it sees. This is especially evident in photography which adds the selectivity of the framed image, and the limitations to tone in the case of black&white work, and the skills required to bring images to print — a command of which Mr. Sutton amply demonstrates. These images are understated but at the same time possess a serene and very smooth gravity: they are solid, intricate, and leave the eye’s mind with a calm yet electric regard. Not dissimilar to the effect of be-ing there, in these landscapes, immersed in the instantaneity and, as the photographer Richard Misrach once characterized the Western landscape, its “terrible beauty.”
These images are an expression of the embodied essence that persists somewhere inside: the essence one is left with when one is there for a time and one then turns away, leaves, only after having made a representation of place. There is a deep loss in that turning away mixed with a certain awareness coming through the Self as reflected against the energies of place. If not for that representation there would be no possibility of turning away, the energies of place so completely envelope and dwarf the Self. The self-awareness is paid for with the incredible loss in the heart at the turning away from these situations. These representations assuage that pain of loss: otherwise, you had to be there!
For most, the only safe or possible way to experience these places is through the representation. That Mr. Sutton with great personal effort makes these representations, then turns away and with great skill brings them as gifts to those who have not, cannot get to these places, or perhaps to those who might be inspired by these images to themselves walk in these places, or to those of us who have walked in these places, we must be thankful and express our admiration for this body of work.
Throughout the world, the West has defined the character of the United States of America as no other region in America ever could. The combination of awe-inspiring topography and the integration of indigenous Indian cultures into the fabric of American life have long inspired citizens of the world to travel to and explore the vast lands that define the American West.
Photography helped to open up the West after the American Civil War by sharing views of nature unparalleled in any other place on Earth. And photography helped to jump-start the creation of a national park system at Yellowstone that is among America’s greatest democratic ideals. It is no wonder that public lands have come to dominate the American West, from national parks and national forests to national grasslands and wildlife refuges, from national monuments and historical sites to wild and scenic rivers and other sanctuaries of wilderness.
Willy Sutton has spent much of the past thirty years getting out of his truck and into the landscape, taking his camera to places of natural wonder both well known and obscure. He has assembled one of the great photographic bodies of work dealing with the public lands of the American West, providing a glimpse of what these landscapes looked like before they became “national treasures.” Thankfully, because of their preservation, these public lands are available to all citizens of the world today.
Whether one is visiting the West for the first time or has lived in the West for a lifetime, readers will find in Sutton’s photographs a magisterial guide to what makes the West so unique, so special. As essayists Toby Jurovics and Susan B. Moldenhauer make plain, Willy Sutton’s photographs will long be held in esteem, even in this modern age dominated by technology and urban development, social and economic inequality, and the imminent prospect of climate change. At Home in the West: The Lure of Public Land is a book for the ages.
William S. Sutton was born in 1956 in Toledo, Ohio, and was raised in New York State, Scottsdale, Arizona, and the western suburbs of Chicago. He began his academic journey at Arizona State University, completed his B.F.A. and M.F.A. in photography at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Photography in 1981. His photographs have been exhibited widely and are in the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the Amoco Collection, Arizona State University, Bellevue Art Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Center for the Study of Place, Chase Manhattan Bank, Colorado Historical Society, Denver Art Museum, Joslyn Art Museum, Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, Phoenix Arts Commission, Princeton University Art Museum, Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, University of Chicago, University of Colorado Special Collections, University of Wyoming Art Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. Mr. Sutton is an associate professor of art at Regis College in Denver, and he lives in the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado.
Sutton, W.S., 2012. At Home in the West: The Lure of Public Land 1st ed., Staunton, VA: George F. Thompson, L.L.C.