The Cloud of Unknowing | David T. Hanson

The photographer David T. Hanson is widely acclaimed for his studies of environmental ruin. In his previous books—including Colstrip, Montana (2010) and Waste Land (2018)—he has exquisitely photographed what we might regard as visual indifference, even devastation, in America’s inhabited landscape. As a counterpoint to what can only be described as the toxic, he has now made an extraordinary document of sacred, cherished spaces, from Cedar Rapids to Kathmandu. Under the title The Cloud of Unknowing, derived from the expression of a medieval Christian mystic, but equally applicable to the voice of a Buddhist seer, Hanson has redressed the imbalance of corrupted space with places of profound harmony. In creating this series, he traveled throughout the United States and made seven extended trips to India and Nepal. The photographs grant us access to sacred sites, shrines, “resting places for the spirit,” that transcend religious divisions and suggest a universal point of focus. From Indian reservations to missionary churches to the temples of the modern world and the ancient, Hanson’s work reveals a realm of contemplation that exceeds geography and survives in the most unexpected corners of contemporary life.