Robert Gould Shaw Memorial c. 1973 - 2008

Richard Benson made this photograph of the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial. It’s a tricky thing, photographing sculpture, isn’t it? You’re trying to capture this solid, three-dimensional object in two dimensions. It's almost like trying to paint the wind. It can feel like a translation, but sometimes translation is what art is all about. I wonder what Benson was thinking when he chose this angle, this light. He’s playing with contrasts, dark and light, solid and ethereal. The soldiers, rendered in such detail, stand in stark contrast to the flowing figure above. The whole image has this ghostly quality. I’m wondering about the layers of history and memory, and the way the camera can both reveal and obscure. It’s like a conversation across time, a dialogue between the sculptor, the photographer, and us.