Mexico 67 1982

Aaron Siskind made this photograph, Mexico 67, at an unknown date with photography. Here we see a composition of interlocking shapes, an orchestration of tonality. The darks and lights seem to want to move like tectonic plates. It’s easy to imagine Siskind finding this surface and being struck by the contrast between the textures. What was he thinking as he framed this shot? Did he see the way the light catches on the edges of the forms, how it flattens the whole image out into a single plane? There’s something about the physicality of the medium – the way the paper feels in your hands, the darkroom smells – that connects you to a history of seeing and image-making. You almost feel like you could dive right into that silver gelatin and get lost in the depths. It’s the kind of conversation artists have across time, inspiring each other's creativity, exchanging ideas. And it leaves so much room for interpretation.