JoAnn Verburg

This never before seen diptych by JoAnn Verburg, BIG PINK (A Lover’s Dream), 2020, was shot in an ancient olive orchard in Campello, Italy in the few fleeting moments as the sun sank below the horizon. The magical pink sky, portending the purples and blues preceding nightfall, is caught suspended here for our contemplation. The branches in the foreground are life size, drawing the viewer into the space created. It feels as if we have unexpectedly stumbled upon this tranquil grove at dusk.

This photographic work, though beautiful, is not about beauty. It does not seek to render an objective representation of a landscape. These serial images are illustrative of the passage of time, noted not only by the space between them, but also by the slight shift in the color of light from one panel to the next. The visual pause between the two offers a moment of personal reflection and the room to draw from human experience. It is simultaneously a threshold to the past and the future.

For Verburg, the photographic medium provides an opportunity to connect with nature and its mystery without needing resolution, that is, finding peace with seeing, while not needing to understand. “Standing out in the orchard is a matter of faith, and patience—being comfortable with not knowing. My job is to show up, and set up my equipment, but not to know what I’m going to do in advance. I learn everything that’s worth knowing from doing, including making mistakes.”