New York (Boy Shining Shoes), July 1952 1952

This photograph of New York by Vivian Maier was taken in July of 1952. I look at this image, and think, what an American scene: the boy, the shoes, the gentleman in the top hat. What was she thinking when she captured this little interaction? Maier's work, with its grainy texture, holds something back from us, but it also offers a specific perspective on the world. I imagine her, in this moment, noticing the horse, and the man, and the boy. She is thinking, 'how do these all fit together into a frame?' I’m drawn to the way the boy is crouched in the street, and the man is almost sitting on a throne. There is a kind of hierarchy embedded here. The boy with the shoe-shine kit, and the man with the horse and cart, ready to give someone a ride around town. Maier must have seen this, too. Her act of seeing this boy and this man is a kind of exchange, a conversation, a response to a world that’s already asking to be seen.