Chicago c. 1950

Aaron Siskind made this photograph, simply called Chicago, by pointing his lens at a wall and clicking. He wasn't arranging or composing a scene; he was noticing the marks on a surface and the way they create something new. The image is all about texture – the cracked and peeling paint of a building, blown up to a monumental scale. These aren't just cracks; they're lines, shapes, and shadows that feel like a whole world. Each mark tells a story of time and decay. What’s so cool is how Siskind isolates these details, turning them into something abstract. It’s like looking at a Rothko or Kline, but it's just a wall! It reminds me that abstraction is all around us, if we only take the time to really see. It echoes the work of Minor White, who also found the sublime in the mundane. It suggests to me that art is not about perfect representation, but about seeing the possibilities in everything.