Linda Connor 1975

Mike Mandel made this photographic print, ‘Linda Connor,’ and I love how it plays with ideas of portraiture. It's like a baseball card, but for artists. The gray scale gives it this timeless feel, almost like an old documentary photo. Look at the way the light falls on Linda’s face, shadowed by the cap. There's a real push and pull between light and dark that creates a sense of depth. It's not just a flat image, but something with texture and dimension. And then there's the baseball glove, slightly worn, hinting at a life lived, a practice, a skill. You can almost feel the leather. It reminds me of work by people like John Baldessari, who also played with image and text in ways that make you question what you're seeing. Art’s always about looking at things from different angles, and Mandel really gets that. It’s less about answers and more about opening up possibilities.