Eiffel Tower, Paris 1931

This is Ilse Bing’s photograph of the Eiffel Tower, Paris. It’s a way of seeing that's all about structure and light. Look at how Bing frames the tower's ironwork. It’s not just a building; it’s a series of crisscrossing lines and angles. The texture is almost palpable, you can practically feel the cool, hard metal. The black and white palette emphasizes the contrast, turning the city into a study of shadows and shapes. It reminds me of some early modernist paintings, stripping away color to get to the essence of form. See the light reflecting off the girders? How it creates these sharp, graphic patterns? That's where the magic is. Bing isn't just documenting; she's abstracting, transforming the familiar into something new. This kind of vision reminds me of László Moholy-Nagy, another artist playing with photography to explore new perspectives. Bing invites us to see the world in a new way, where structure and light create a kind of visual poetry.