An autumn afternoon will always surpass the experience of viewing a color photograph of the same autumn afternoon. Alternatively, a black-and-white image of pocked, gray boulders can seduce us more easily than actual rocks themselves. Therein lies the challenge of color landscape photography—especially those naked images devoid of human influence. Beyond our own bewildered instinct to capture beauty for quick reference, the wonders of the natural world have been dulled by the mass media's redundant desire to throw a beautiful backdrop behind a story or product. We may not have done it all, but in this day and age we have practically seen it all, in living color.
To rise above the fray of basic stock photography, as Sierra-based Elizabeth Carmel aspires to do in her show Gathering Calm, landscapes require more than size (the photos have been blown up to 20 by 30 inches), scope (most of her photos capture miles of forest, mountain, or beach), and color (an arresting yet garish approach to naturalism). Compounding the challenge is the fact that Carmel's images of the Northwest were shot digitally, on a large-format 22-megapixel camera. Despite the fact that information is captured at a supernatural rate, many of the landscapes loiter in a netherworld of artistic representation.
Take, for instance, Wild Dogwood: Carmel's image of a spring-like branch overhanging a rushing river suffers from a shaky "ribbon taffy" effect. Transforming water into a vaporous presence would fare better in the world of black-and-white film. Here, the viewer must struggle to resolve the photograph's two disparate plains: a fantastical gray-lavender river against the hyperaccuracy of a crisp, green branch.
The most successful image in the show is Lake Tahoe, which introduces us to a small steel gate that has the absurd mission, it seems, to protect an entire universe of snow, water, and sky. The fact that we trespass this gate, with eyes suddenly running through natural space, is a tribute to Carmel's sense of awe and proportion, as well as her belief that a good landscape photo, even in color, can surpass the real. 
