Eve Sonneman 1975

This is a photograph by Mike Mandel of Eve Sonneman. It looks like it's a baseball card. I wonder if Eve knew she was going to be a baseball card. She's got her bat, and her New York Yankees cap on. Maybe Mike Mandel said something to her like, "Hey, let's do this thing! Let's put you in a baseball card." That would be something – to see yourself in a new context, a black and white photo that looks like it’s aged, like a vintage baseball card. When I look at a photograph, especially one like this that has a found-object quality, I think about intention and how it shifts and transforms. The artist has one intention, the subject another. What do we bring to it as viewers? It is like a game of baseball, really, where so many things have to happen just right for something interesting to emerge. Art is an ongoing game of conversation and exchange, and we are all invited to play.