Jerusalem, 2007, in Mahane Yehuda Market Possibly 2007 - 2014

Leo Rubinfien took this photograph in 2007, in Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem, with I’m guessing, a handheld camera, moving through a crowd. It's black and white, and what I notice is how the photograph crops a cluster of people in mid-action. Everyone is wearing glasses. Is that a hat? I can imagine the experience of being there with Rubinfien, maybe looking down through the camera, trying to fix what is by definition unfixed. I love how Rubinfien is part of a longer conversation in the history of street photography. He might have been thinking about photographers like Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, or Helen Levitt, all of whom found something magical in everyday city life. You can sense that exchange and the ongoing creative process. Ultimately, this photograph is about a particular time, place, and culture, but also about something universal, like the experience of being in a crowd of people.