Paucartambo, Peru 1974

Ed Grazda made this photograph, Paucartambo, Peru, using gelatin silver. The image is split by a dark, ornate window frame, its two halves pushed open as if inviting us in. I wonder if Grazda felt a similar tension to mine when making a painting—that feeling of wanting to bring the outside in, and also, wanting to push the inside out. In this piece, one panel is covered with scratchings, which read like half-erased thoughts or maybe long-forgotten secrets. I can imagine him standing there, camera in hand, trying to capture not just what he sees, but what he feels—that sense of being both inside and outside, connected and separated, seeing and being seen. Like a painter, the photographer frames a reality. The soft light and muted tones give the scene a timeless, almost dreamlike quality. It’s a quiet and intimate moment, one that invites us to pause and reflect on the world around us and the stories it holds.