Man on Bench 1937

This photograph, "Man on Bench", was taken by Nathan Lerner sometime in the 20th century, using photography. The image is mostly made up of grey tones. There’s a real softness to the whole thing, like looking at a half-remembered dream, or an image that has faded over time. The man in the image, slumped on the bench, isn’t sharply defined. He is a collection of soft shapes and blurred edges. I find myself drawn to the texture of the bench, how it looks almost like rough stone, a contrast with the soft fabric of the man’s coat. There’s a melancholic feeling. It reminds me a bit of some of the photographs by Eugène Atget, those everyday scenes of Paris, full of a similar kind of quiet, understated beauty. The way Lerner captures a fleeting moment, a small piece of the world, makes me think about how photography, like painting, is about capturing something real, and also about creating something new. It is about ambiguity and how we find meaning in the world around us.