Richard Buswell has photographed Western settlement sites, ghost towns and frontier homesteads for more than 41 years. He has exhibited internationally and is included in the major American collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Baltimore Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Masur Museum of Art, and more.

Throughout his career, Buswell increasingly has moved closer to his subject matter, emphasizing corroded artifacts and decayed bones to reveal the ravages of time. Ironically, Buswell’s photographs are not about loss, but about preservation. Buswell documents the effects of extraction and industry, while also portraying the renewal of the land.

Richard Buswell: Close to Home was organized by the Montana Museum of Art & Culture, at the University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.

Image: Richard Buswell, Skull Tree, 2010, selenium-toned gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the Montana Museum of Art & Culture.