Downtown Miami 1999

Jodi Cobb’s photograph, "Downtown Miami" captures a fleeting street moment. It’s all about geometry and color. There’s a pink column, a hydrant yellow enough to make you thirsty, and the hard lines of the pavement. And then there's a shadow. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's some kind of cast-off shadow, a fragment that seems to be falling out of the sky. There’s a fallen sign for directions, a human figure sleeping rough. It's a snapshot that feels deeply composed. I wonder if Cobb had to wait for the light to be just right, or whether she snapped it in a moment. Painters look to photographers for composition and light, for a slice of reality. Cobb is doing her bit for the conversation between artists. What I love about painting and photography is that it's all about the artist asking, how can I fix this moment and make it mean something?