Radical Amazement 

Context, as they say, is everything. That seems even more pertinent when the context is a historic, global pandemic. Consequently, it’s hard for me to look at Dylan Yarbrough’s photographs outside of the sense of isolation and uncertainty that permeates our sometimes hesitant, sometimes heroic response to the coronavirus. It might seem an unfair context for these images, most of which were taken long before the moment I am writing this, a month into my own self-isolation. Then again, it seems entirely appropriate to read Yarbrough’s images in this context since nothing about our current circumstance is entirely new. What’s new is that this latest iteration of late capitalism’s tragedy has been dramatically amplified by an unthinking, yet deadly virus.  

Yarbrough’s scenes poetically speak to the isolation and lack of certitude that can permeate a dense metropolitan area like Chicago even under the best of times. The airplanes that once dominated the skies are emblematic of both the promise and the peril of globalization, which brought us all closer together while seeding a homogenous corporate culture, let alone coronavirus. Barricades simultaneously protect us and divide us from one another, or collapse in front of us, like cheap tokens of false power. Images of beaches and gleaming skyscrapers create fantasy illusions for those who can afford them; and fake grass peels away from the lone patch of earth amidst a sea of concrete.  

Suggestively, two plastic-encased copies of a September 2, 2019 edition of the Spanish- language newspaper Hoy offer a metaphor of our President’s divisive tone, fracturing his visage like a cubist collage and offering a subtle play on words. The headline declares “Se siente indispensable,” which in the context of the subheading “Will the Stock Market Collapse if Donald Trump is Impeached?” translates as either “It (the stock market) feels indispensable” or “He feels indispensable (to himself).” The bifurcated composition of Yarbrough’s photograph amplifies this subtle critique of Trump’s ego, which is all the more legible to Spanish speakers. Tragically, shortly after Yarbrough captured this image, Tribune Publishing ceased publication of Hoy, leaving many community advocates angry given the 2020 census and election in which Spanish-speaking populations have a major stake.  

If Yarbrough’s work, therefore, causes us to look at our fractured media and urban landscapes with fresh eyes towards the subtleties of isolation and inequity, he also asks us to empower ourselves with a sense of radical amazement in the manner of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel:

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement...... get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” 

This sense of radical amazement resonates deeply in Yarbrough’s final three images – of leaves covered in overspray from an overzealous painter, a bricolage composition of a bright orange broom against worn stone, and pull tabs that oscillate between consumer refuse and glitter or stardust. Yarbrough’s images ask us to look with a compassion for color, line, form, rhythm, and harmony – to embrace the poetry of the everyday and allow ourselves to be amazed. This, too, can be a form of empowerment in the face of loneliness and inequity.

Essay By Gregory Foster-Rice Ph.D. 
Response to Proof of Paradise 

artist Contact

- Dylan Yarbrough -

Dylan Yarbrough is a contemporary photographer based in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is currently a Photography Instructor at the University of Arkansas and a 2021 Recipient of a CPS Lives Fellowship. Dylan received his MFA from Columbia College Chicago in 2020. His work has been exhibited nationally, including recent shows at the Center For Creative Photography, Arcade Gallery, Midwest Center for Photography, Foucs Gallery, and Historic Arkansas Museum. Dylan’s photos have recently been featured in several publications, including LenScratch, Oxford American Magazine, Aint-Bad Magazine, and Too Tired Project.

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