Vermont End (North), Variation B 2012

John Chiara made this photograph, "Vermont End (North), Variation B," using a camera he built himself. The whole thing feels like a beautiful accident, the way the colors swim together in a hazy, dreamlike state. I’m drawn to the lower half, where the dark pavement seems to swallow everything. It's like the paint was poured on and left to find its own level. This area anchors the image, a murky foreground that makes the sun-drenched wall behind it all the more luminous. There's something about the way Chiara embraces the unpredictable nature of his process that reminds me of photographers like Henry Holmes Smith, who were just as interested in the alchemy of the darkroom as they were in capturing a perfect image. It’s less about the end result and more about the conversation that happens along the way.