art candy

Photographer Rachel Sussman’s Desert Has Melted

Rachel Sussman’s Welwitchia Mirabilis #0707-6411 (2,000 years old; namib naukluft desert, namibia) (2008).Courtesy of the artist


Rachel Sussman’s giant photos of the oldest living things on Earth — gnarly trees and scorched weeds and such earthly matter — look like location shots for nightmarish Seussian horror movies. Here, it looks like the Once-ler threw a tantrum on his way from chopping Truffula trees, a scenario inspiring a spot of Schadenfreude in the misanthropic Lorax. Sussman’s images are on view at Michael Steinberg Fine Art through Saturday. —Emma Pearse

Photographer Rachel Sussman’s Desert Has Melted