Between LightGallery 4 · East Wing03 / 06
Colour photograph of a vast white salt flat under a pale blue sky, with a tiny red car on the horizon.
Colour photograph of a vast white salt flat under a pale blue sky, with a tiny red car on the horizon.

Stop 3 · Audio guide

Salt Flats, Noon

Ines Achterberg,

Medium
Chromogenic print
Dimensions
76 × 101 cm

Guide transcript

We move now into colour. In 1977, Ines Achterberg drove across the salt flats of the American West with a large format camera strapped into the passenger seat. Photographers were taught never to shoot at noon, when the light is flat and harsh. Achterberg did exactly that. The result is an image of almost total whiteness, broken only by a small red car at the horizon. Step back from the print and the car nearly disappears. Step closer and it becomes the whole story. Achterberg called this work a portrait of distance.