Frederick Douglass Boulevard/116th Street Possibly 1989 - 1990

Madoka Takagi made this photograph, Frederick Douglass Boulevard/116th Street, using a camera and photographic paper, of course! There’s something so real about the gray scale here, the way the tones are all so close that it almost feels like a drawing. I find my eye keeps going to the “Used Police Cars For Sale” sign, just juxaposed with the fading advertisements painted on the buildings behind. The texture of the brick is just delicious, you can almost feel the grit of the city on your fingertips. And the way the light hits those old signs, it’s like the city itself is telling a story about forgotten promises. Takagi reminds me a little of Bernd and Hilla Becher, those German photographers who documented industrial structures. They were interested in this kind of urban decay and the history embedded in the architecture. But unlike the Bechers, Takagi has a real human touch, a kind of melancholic poetry. It’s about seeing the beauty in the imperfect, the faded, and the real.