42nd Street from the Sixth Avenue Subway, New York 1940 - 1941

Lisette Model made this photograph, 42nd Street from the Sixth Avenue Subway, New York, with a camera, a way of painting with light. The composition is all about legs and feet, a crowd in motion suggested by a series of dark and light tonal contrasts. Model crops tightly so the subjects press against the edges of the frame, flattening the depth. There's a real physicality to the image, a sense of being right there in the throng. I love the way the light rakes across the surfaces, picking out the textures of the stockings, shoes, and the sidewalk. A shoe in the foreground is worn and scuffed, caught mid-stride. It’s an intimate and revealing detail, a kind of stand-in for the body as a whole. Model’s work reminds me of Helen Levitt, another photographer who captured the energy of New York street life. But while Levitt focused on children, Model was drawn to adults, their bodies, and their faces. Like all great art, this photograph embraces ambiguity. It’s a document, but also a kind of dream.