Untitled [nine Feticci Personali, Rome] 1953

This photograph, by Robert Rauschenberg, captures a park scene with a series of hanging objects beneath twisting trees. I can only imagine what it must have been like for Rauschenberg, wandering through this park in Rome, spotting these bizarre, dangling fetishes swaying in the breeze. You can see the scene through his eyes; that’s the magical thing about photography. He framed the shot so that the spindly limbs of the trees mirror the odd arrangements of the objects below, creating this eerie dialogue between nature and human intervention. Rauschenberg was always scavenging for materials, both physical and visual, and repurposing them in unexpected ways. This photo seems to fit right into that impulse—a kind of ready-made “combine” out in the world. It’s like he’s saying, "Hey, look at this weirdness I found! Isn't it beautiful and strange?" And it really is! Artists are always inspiring each other. It makes you wonder what Rauschenberg’s next piece will be.