Fighting Centaur 1952

This gelatin silver print, Fighting Centaur, was made by Frederick Sommer, though when, exactly, is lost to the mists of time. Sommer was interested in form and composition, and the way that an image can be built up from disparate elements. Look at how the monochrome palette makes the textures pop, the way light catches on the crumpled paper and the dull metal of the pipe. You can almost feel the roughness of the materials. The composition has this amazing tension, with the weighty form of the "centaur" pushing against the negative space around it, like it's about to burst out of the frame. Sommer's genius was in seeing the potential for transformation in the mundane. Like, who else would look at a pile of trash and see a mythical creature locked in battle? It reminds me a little of some of the surrealist photographers like Man Ray, who also delighted in transforming everyday objects into something strange and wonderful, but Sommer makes the result so much more tactile. It's a reminder that art can be found anywhere, if you're willing to look hard enough.