Manzanillo, Mexico 1955

Aaron Siskind made this photograph, Manzanillo, Mexico, on paper, and looking at it, I feel like he saw a painting already there, in the world. The tonal range is so intense, it's almost like he's using black and white as colors, you know? I can see the way the light hits the peeling posters and the rough wall, creating these crazy textures and shapes. It’s like, what is it? Is it a face? Is it an abstract composition? I think Siskind was interested in that ambiguity, that in-between space where representation and abstraction meet. Like he's saying, "Hey, look at this thing that already exists, this accidental beauty." It reminds me of some of the collage work Rauschenberg was doing, finding art in the everyday, the discarded. It's all part of this ongoing conversation artists have, riffing off each other, finding new ways to see.