Benares, India 1994

Michael Ackerman made this gelatin silver print, Benares, India, at an unknown date. But what might it have been like to be Michael, walking the streets, watching, waiting? The photograph’s composition—the foregrounded figure, the middle-grounded figure, the figure in the dark—creates a claustrophobic feeling of being stuck in a maze. The high contrast enhances the gritty, raw aesthetic, drawing me into the emotional intensity of the scene. Ackerman has an interesting eye. It feels spontaneous, intuitive, and emotional rather than clinical and documentary. You sense that the person with the camera has a unique sense of how to capture the world. Ackerman's work reminds me of artists like Anders Petersen, who also documented life's fringes with an unflinching gaze. His way of working allows for an intimate and personal connection between the photographer, subject, and viewer. The feeling is of one artist talking to another.