Sacramento (“Fat Lady” circus act) 1972

Bill Dane made this photograph, Sacramento (“Fat Lady” circus act), and it's a small black and white print on paper, a kind of document. I'm looking at this image, thinking about what it means to record a moment in time. Dane's capturing a scene, a sideshow with a banner of a 'Fat Lady.' And there's this kid on stage, doing something with cards. What's he thinking, up there under that banner? He is blowing a house of cards into the air and it might fall down any second. Photography is about being present, about framing a specific view. It's like the photographer is constructing a reality, deciding what gets seen and how. And the contrast here, the gritty texture, it all adds to the story. Dane's work, like that of other photographers, is about bearing witness, about engaging with the world in a way that painting is always trying to emulate. And ultimately, it's about sharing a piece of that vision with us.