Coney Island 1943 - 1944

Nathan Lerner made this photograph, Coney Island, using gelatin silver. It’s a tightly framed view of a crowd at the beach, mediated by a strange and prominent wicker waste bin. The contrast between the human mass in the background and the banal object in the foreground is really striking. It’s not just a picture of a beach, it’s a picture *about* picture taking. It's like Lerner's saying, 'hey look at this mundane thing, now *look through* it.' The coarse weave of the bin, the way it allows glimpses of the scene beyond, sets up a kind of framing device. It makes you aware of how looking always involves choices about what to include and exclude. The almost abstract pattern of the wicker contrasts with the messy, teeming humanity behind it. It is a filter, a structure. The photo reminds me of the work of Harry Callahan, who explored similar themes. Art is about seeing, framing, and questioning what we think we know.