Pont Alexander III, Paris 1935

This photograph, Pont Alexander III, Paris, was shot by Ilse Bing, who I understand used a Leica camera – that means a handheld, portable one. Bing was really interested in modernising photography, and you can see that in the way she frames this view of the bridge. The silvery gelatin-silver print is all about light, about the city as seen through this new technological eye. The composition is so dynamic, shooting up at the lamps and the statues. The sky is heavy with cloud, yet the lamps themselves seem to glow. I love the way she plays with perspective, tilting the camera to make the monument lean. Think of Atget, another photographer working in Paris at this time, meticulously documenting buildings, in such a different way, or maybe Moholy-Nagy, who Bing knew. For me, it's the oddness of the angle that makes this image so compelling, that awkward upward thrust, the feeling of seeing the city anew.