Bryan Schutmaat’s new series presents a typology of skies across the Western United States – a quiet but deliberate departure from the emotional gravity of his earlier long-form work. Here, the gaze turns upward. Photographing the sky became a reprieve, a way of seeking levity after years of confronting struggle and American decline. In cataloging the atmosphere, Schutmaat embraced simplicity and variation – tone, texture, and light shifting from frame to frame.

What might seem ephemeral or ordinary gathers into rhythm – a typology of fleeting phenomena that speaks to the openness and vastness of the West. While his previous projects remain grounded in narrative and social realities, these skies invite a different kind of attention. Taken together, they suggest a turn toward quietude and release, a reminder that photography can hold both weight and lightness.

Beyond their formal restraint, the photographs also gesture toward a broader meditation on time. Each sky, fixed momentarily within the frame, marks a point in an ever-changing continuum. The sequence becomes a register of passing hours and shifting weather, but also of perception itself — how mood, memory, and light intertwine. In this accumulation of transient scenes, Schutmaat offers not just an archive of atmospheres but a subtle reflection on photography’s paradoxical ability to both preserve and let go.