Burlington Avenue and Selim Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, Looking West 1976

Editor: So, this is John Gossage’s black and white photograph, "Burlington Avenue and Selim Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, Looking West" from 1976. It feels so ordinary, almost banal. I’m drawn to the grittiness of it, the cracks in the asphalt and that lonely bus stop sign. What do you make of this seemingly uneventful scene? Curator: Uneventful? Oh, my dear, look closer! It's a poem about the forgotten corners of our everyday existence. Gossage has this knack for finding beauty in the mundane, like a whisper in a crowded room. Notice the geometric precision of the built environment against the almost rebellious weeds pushing through the sidewalk cracks. Editor: The weeds are kind of beautiful, sticking up where they don't belong. It feels melancholic though, somehow? Curator: Exactly! It's that quiet melancholy that pulls you in. Gossage isn't giving us a grand vista; he's offering a slice of lived reality, a glimpse into a specific moment in time and a very particular place. This isn't about monumental architecture; it's about the unassuming spaces in between. Are you experiencing some sort of, perhaps, existential dread looking at it? Editor: Maybe just a little! It feels…transient. Curator: Think about the era too. 1976 was a period of disillusionment, wasn't it? And Gossage captured that sentiment so eloquently without hitting us over the head with symbolism. It just *is.* Did you ever stop and observe something for an amount of time until something happened and changed your outlook on the mundane in this way? Editor: Never so poetically as this photograph. I see how he elevated something seemingly insignificant into something so poignant. I feel like stopping to watch the weeds on my way home now. Curator: Wonderful. Perhaps art is at its best when it reframes our perspective. Thanks to Gossage, maybe we'll all take the bus! Just kidding, but let's remember to savor our everyday existence, with bus stops and weeds and everything.