Pont Alexander III, Paris 1935

This moody photograph captures the Pont Alexandre III in Paris. Ilse Bing saw this scene and chose to photograph it, but what was she thinking? I like the dark, looming sky, so heavy, almost sitting on the monuments, making them sink and the perspective tilt. The forms are so compressed, they look like cut-outs. Bing was a master of light and shadow, and here, the contrast is so strong it almost feels surreal. The darks and the lights push and pull, each making the other. It reminds me of the work of Eugène Atget, who also photographed Paris with a kind of quiet intensity, before the city changed too much. I wonder if she knew his work, did it inspire her? I love how artists, and photographers too, look at each other's work and that of artists past, like a big conversation across time. It is really nice when a photograph can be painterly, and this one gets there.