Brooklyn Bridge, New York 1964

David Vestal made this gelatin silver print of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It's all grays and blacks and whites, misty and dense like wet wool. I wonder what it was like to stand there, looking up at that massive bridge? I imagine Vestal squinting, trying to capture the bigness, the way the bridge disappears into the sky. He’s trying to find the shapes, the forms, like the shadows, the delicate balance between the towers and the cables. The composition makes me think about scale and perspective. The bridge is so huge and solid, but the cars look tiny in comparison, and the wispy sky makes the towers feel weightless. The bridge almost looks like a drawing, too. It feels like the photo is also trying to capture a moment in time, a feeling, maybe a little bit of melancholy. Vestal is speaking to us and saying "Hey, check this out!". It's like he wants to say, "I was here, and this is how it felt."