Street Fair, Paris 1933

Ilse Bing made this black and white photograph, Street Fair, Paris, at an unknown date. The high contrast in this image lends it a dramatic, almost surreal quality, as if the everyday is caught in a moment of high stakes. Look at the way the light falls across the scene, the stark whites against the deep blacks, creating shapes that are both abstract and recognizable. The texture of the photograph itself, that smooth, almost glassy surface, contrasts with the rough energy of the fairground ride in motion. The dark, looming canopy at the top seems to press down on the precarious act below, and those blossoming trees in the background, a soft, blurred counterpoint to the sharp lines of the machinery. I am reminded of some of the earlier, more unsettling images of Diane Arbus. Both artists find an unnerving beauty in the ordinary. Bing leaves us suspended, questioning what is thrilling and what is frightening, embracing the ambiguity, not just of the image, but of life itself.