Richard Misrach is an American photographer born in 1949 known for large-scale documentary photographs depicting human impacts on landscapes. He graduated from UC in 1971 and began his career in black and white photography before pioneering color photography in the late 1970s. One of his most famous works is Desert Cantos, begun in 1979, which captures the desert and signs of human destruction. Misrach believes his photographs can powerfully convey difficult ideas through their beauty.