Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1960

David Vestal made this photograph, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with gelatin silver, and it’s a whole world in shades of gray. The print has a beautiful range of tones, from nearly pure white to velvety black. I imagine Vestal wandering the streets, looking for the right composition. It looks like a rainy day and he’s catching a moment of everyday life in the city. I'm thinking about the buildings, their ornamentation and how they frame the sky. Vestal is interested in the layering of things—the cars in the foreground, the buildings in the middle ground, and then the suggestion of something far off in the distance. Think about how one image leads to another, how artists are always in dialogue, borrowing, stealing, and transforming what they see. Artists leave a mark on the world, not a final statement but an invitation to keep looking and keep thinking. It's like a visual conversation that never ends.