A series of twenty photographs captured along the high moor of Dartmoor National Park in England, ​Trail Markers d​ocuments a subjective journey through the historic landscape. Nancy Holt took the images in Trail Markers in the fall of 1969 while traveling through England with Robert Smithson. The camera angle is trained downwards, with each photograph featuring an orange mark created as a guide for hikers – inviting us to assume the visual perspective of a traveler in pursuit of our path. The orange markers highlight a human construct within a vast natural expanse. Trail Markers brings together Holt’s interest in systems, human movement through space and time, and to her fascination with the circle. ⁠Holt resists the panoramic, all-encompassing view, offering instead an experience of the landscape that is at once dynamic and myopic.

It’s very hypnotic these little orange dots, and it was interesting because they were very cleverly placed. Every time you got to a place where you might wonder where the next step might be there would be this orange dot. It’s structurally interesting, and gave wonderful continuity to my slides. It was an artwork that evolved, came up, I didn’t know I was going to be seeing it and then was seeing it and thought this was perfect. It was a gift. It was already there. My job was to get the perfect photo. (Nancy Holt)

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As found on Holt & Smithson Foundation’s website.