Commission Exhibit Number 541 1967

This photograph, *Commission Exhibit Number 541*, captures the stark, metallic details of a rifle. It's an image of precision, where every line and curve has a specific purpose. I imagine the anonymous photographer, maybe hunched over, carefully framing the gun. What were they thinking? Probably about making a clear, objective record, but the light and shadow create a strange beauty. You can almost feel the coldness of the metal and the weight of the object. The gun’s shape, these cylinders, seem so sure of their task, so unyielding. It reminds me that even in the most functional objects, there's a kind of design, an intention. Artists are always in dialogue, whether they know it or not. We take what's there, and we remake it, we question it, we transform it. This picture, like all pictures, becomes something other than what it is of. It enters our consciousness. We let it change us.