Chicago Facade 7 1960

Aaron Siskind made this gelatin silver print, Chicago Facade 7. It’s a photograph of an old brick building. I love how Siskind found a way to flatten space, even though photography is so often about creating a sense of depth. The windows become these dark voids, punctuated by the bright white arches above them. Your eye jumps from arch to arch, window to window, almost like reading a musical score. It's such a great composition, so simple, yet it’s full of this latent energy. What's amazing is how Siskind is able to turn something so mundane – the facade of a building – into something abstract and powerful. This kind of work reminds me of the work of the Bechers, Bernd and Hilla. Both use repetition and seriality to create new ways of seeing the world around us. It’s about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.