Brighton, England 1966

Elliott Erwitt took this photograph, sometime during his life, in Brighton, England. It makes me think about process, because the image is so grainy it looks like an etching, or some kind of dark charcoal drawing. The lone man is small compared to the churning sea. The texture of the water is amazing, look at how the waves have been rendered with all of these tiny dark and light marks. His dark jacket stands out against the lighter tones of the water. The surface of the water is broken up and active; the figure is stoic. And there’s something almost funny about this guy, standing in the ocean with his dark socks and shoes on. It reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter’s seascapes. I guess what I’m trying to say is that art is not just about the thing you see, but also about how the artist got there. Ultimately, art is about uncertainty.