London, 2003, in Piccadilly Circus Possibly 2003 - 2014

Leo Rubinfien made this picture in 2003 in London’s Piccadilly Circus, and it's a world of black and white. I’m thinking about what it felt like to take this shot, this man standing with such composure, the city blurred behind him like a dream. The contrast is stark, almost painterly, reminiscent of some of Gerhard Richter's blurred photos that look so much like paintings. I feel that the tones are really gorgeous here, and the contrast between the foreground and background is so cool, this guy is so focused and the background dissolves into nothing. Rubinfien is creating a moment, a stillness amid chaos, and I wonder, what was he thinking when he pressed the shutter? Was it a lucky moment? We, as artists, collect these moments. It reminds me that art is about capturing fragments of reality, turning fleeting moments into something permanent, something we can look at again and again, each time finding something new. It’s like a conversation across time, a painter speaking to a photographer, each medium informing the other.