Tide Pool, Mont Saint-Michel, France

1982, printed 1995

Tide Pool, Mont Saint-Michel, France, 1982, printed 1995. William Clift (American, b. 1944). Gelatin silver print; image: 16.4 x 22.8 cm (6 7/16 x 9 in.); paper: 17.5 x 24 cm (6 7/8 x 9 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Tom E. Hinson and Diana S. Tittle 2022.62 During visits to France in 1977 and 1981–82, architectural and landscape photographer William Clift photographed in and around the majestic abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. Mont-Saint-Michel is a tidal island and was originally accessible via a causeway only at low tides. The tide pool in Clift’s photograph echoes the island’s isolation from the mainland but with an inversion: the tide pool is composed of rocks and water, and the” water” surrounding it is dry sand. William Clift was a close friend of Georgia O’Keeffe and photographed her numerous times; see 1990.111 and 2019.93.