Washington Bridge, New York 1939

Herman Dibbits made this photograph of the Washington Bridge in New York. It's all silvery greys, the girders and cables creating a kind of gothic cathedral for the age of machines. I'm really drawn to the viewpoint, looking up and out. I feel like I'm lying on my back, gazing up at this massive structure, caught between the earth and the sky. I wonder if Dibbits lay on the ground to get this angle, feeling the weight and scale of the bridge above him? There's something about the way the bridge tapers into the distance that reminds me of those Renaissance paintings where all the lines converge to a single point. A real feat of perspective. It’s like Dibbits is saying, "Hey, look what we can build, what we can imagine!" You can see small figures below, hinting at a sense of human scale against the backdrop of such a large industrial achievement. It makes me think of the relationship between humanity and progress.