Fiddlin Bill Henseley, Mountain Fiddler 1937

Ben, born in 1935, made this photograph of Fiddlin’ Bill Henseley, Mountain Fiddler with what looks like a pretty straightforward camera. What strikes me is its wonderful lack of embellishment. The tones are muted, almost a symphony in grayscale. The texture feels immediate, like you could almost reach out and touch the grain of his jacket or the worn wood of the fiddle. There’s a particularly lovely highlight on the body of the violin that speaks to both form and the illusion of sound. It reminds me of some of the early documentary photographers, like Walker Evans, who found beauty in the everyday. It is a kind of unadorned, straightforward depiction that lets the subject speak for itself. Like a good song, it just is. Sometimes, that’s enough, you know?