In 1997 Misrach moved with his family to a home in the Berkeley hills with a view of the Golden Gate, 7 miles away. On the front porch he marked a place where he could set up his camera to photograph the changing effects of light, weather and atmosphere over the bay. He shot images from the same position, at different times of day, throughout the year. Misrach made this exposure as the sun rose on November 1, 1998, and a bank of clouds moved across San Francisco Bay. The initial impression of this photograph is one of luminous color. Its saturated, softly modulated veils of blue and gray are reminiscent of a painting by Mark Rothko. However, in the shining band at the bottom of the image we recognize a distant landscape, and realize that it is a colored cloud bank that occupies most of the image. In the background we can see the Golden Gate, with the bridge spanning from Fort Point to the Marin Headlands. In the middle distance Alcatraz Island is visible on the left, and Angel Island on the right. Between them, the morning sun reflects off the shifting waters of San Francisco Bay, as the coastal atmosphere responds to the rising temperature and shifting light of the morning sun. Change is Misrach's theme in this and his other Golden Gate landscapes, signaled, with elegant restraint, by the date and time that title the photograph. The majesty of nature is his subject, and he entreats us to notice its beauty, covet it and conserve it. Misrach produced over 700 photographs from this viewpoint, from which 85 were selected for the book Golden Gate.

from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)