Downtown Miami 1999

Jodi Cobb made this photograph, Downtown Miami, and in it, she embraces a process that feels almost like painting with light. The image is so flat, the shadows are doing all the work. Look at the way the color is handled. The wall has a textured surface, it’s the same pink as the column. It’s not photorealism, but a constructed reality. Then there is the funny shadow of a bird, a pigeon perhaps, that echoes the shape of the hydrant, making it look like a cartoon. I'm reminded of the work of William Eggleston, particularly his ability to find the surreal in the everyday. Like Eggleston, Cobb transforms the mundane into something magical, revealing the hidden beauty and strange poetry of the world around us. What is so striking about Cobb's picture is how she embraces ambiguity, layering meaning and challenging us to look more closely at the world.