Looking beyond traditional landscapes.

• Position: Focus

"Imprints: Photographs by Mark Ruwedel" showcases 41 images of dinosaur tracks and ancient human footpaths. Ruwedel's work is as visually striking as it is conceptually rich, building on concerns raised by New Topographics photographers such as Robert Adams, while resonating strongly with Land School artists like Richard Long and Hamish Fulton.

"For anyone who loves photography, Ruwedel's [images] are not to be missed. He is the sort of photographer other photographers watch,'" enthuses Phillip Prodger, curator of photography at the Peabody Essex Museum. "The richness and beauty of his prints command attention from the start, but their jewel-like detail invites repeated viewing. They get better every time you see theme."

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In these works, footprints appear and disappear, inexplicably descending into gorges, crossing rivers, and circling mountains--improbably preserved evidence of peoples and animals long since gone from the Earth. The passage of millennia is written on the land, and few can read a landscape as well as Ruwedel--a true craftsman with an eye for geologic lime.

Working in the rugged tradition of Timothy O'Sullivan and William Henry Jackson, Ruwedel captures locations so remote as to be uncharted. Carrying a large-format camera across deserts and high plains, Ruwedel has explored perilous spots beyond maps and cellphone signals. On rare occasions, as is depicted in...