The subject of Scott McFarland’s Empire No.1 is the ten-acre Huntington Desert Garden in San Marino, California, home to more than 5,000 species. The design of the garden—in which the plants are placed more closely together than they would grow naturally—is underscored by the sharp focus of both the foreground and the background and by the tight framing of the scene. This is not a picture of a moment in time, however, and a longer, closer look reveals inconsistencies, such as shadows from different times of day and the appearance of plants that do not grow in the same season. McFarland created this photograph by seamlessly combining selected elements from a number of negatives, which he took in the same location over a period of time. The resulting image challenges our perceptions of space and time.

Label from Looking Out and Looking In: A Selection of Contemporary Photography, January 19–June 9, 2013