Crescent Moon Spring, Dunhuang, China

This photograph, taken in Dunhuang, China, depicts a Buddhist island shrine with a restored towering pagoda. It is representative of Lynn Davis’s focus on monumental landscapes and iconic architecture in her photography, as since the mid-1980s she has sought and documented the world’s most exalted sites—both natural and manmade. In its subject and the quiet, contemplative character of the image, this work reveals the intersection of Davis’s refined, classical eye and her spiritual life as a practitioner of Buddhism.