Jimmy Webster (Lower West Side series) 1992

Milton Rogovin made this photograph, *Jimmy Webster (Lower West Side series)*. The light is even and the monochrome palette is muted. It's a portrait of a young man, sitting on the porch of his home, it seems. I wonder what it was like for Rogovin to make this photograph. What conversations, what exchanges? It feels intimate, like the photographer spent time with his subject. Rogovin has a reputation as a social documentary photographer and I wonder if Jimmy is aware of being a subject, or if he's just being himself. The composition is balanced, like Jimmy is holding the center of the frame, but the tools around him are given as much attention. The house number is just visible to the left of the frame and our eyes move around the composition as if to meet the sitter's gaze. It reminds me that any form of mark-making involves a transfer of energy and empathy between the artist and the subject. Jimmy and Milton are in conversation here.