Arnold Gassan 1975

Mike Mandel made this photographic print titled, Arnold Gassan, at an undetermined date. It's all about the greyscale here, a study in contrasts, if you like, but also about how images are constructed and how meaning is layered. The texture of the photo itself is quite flat, with smooth tonal gradations, but the subject is anything but. Arnold, with his beard, the texture of the baseball bat, the cap, all give the eye plenty to latch onto. Look at the way Mandel captures the way the light falls on Arnold's face and the bat he's holding. It’s like he's inviting us to think about how we "read" an image. There is something of the deadpan humour of artists like Ed Ruscha here, I think, but also the photographic portraits of someone like Diane Arbus, who also was drawn to images of people on the fringes of society. Ultimately, the image celebrates the possibilities of art as an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time. It's really about seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world in new ways, and that’s what makes art so darn exciting!